The Consulate-General of Saudi Arabia has written to the New Zealand Government to complain after two incidents in which Saudi Arabian women were told by bus drivers that they couldn’t board a bus because of their Muslim veil. Dr Sameer Aljabri, the husband of one of the women, who works at the Saudi Arabia Cultural Mission in Auckland, said Read more
A number of issues which may appear to be unrelated have been in the news Redefining Marriage, Children being raised in a “gender free” environment, Alasdair Thompson’s comments on workplace productivity, Cardinal sees ‘no theological obstacle’ to women priests. They are however connected by the underlying issue of gender difference. At one end of the Read more
The Hungry Tide, a documentary showing at the Sydney Film Festival last week, focuses on those islanders suffering on the front line of climate change. The Film maker Tom Zubrycki’s protagonist is Maria Tiimon, a shy, middle-aged Kiribati woman who now lives in Sydney. As the Pacific outreach officer for a Catholic advocacy group the Edmund Rice Centre, Read more
A Wellington College has hit back at claims of homophobia – saying it would allow two of its students to “date” each other at its ball. St Patrick’s College student Malcolm Pimentel wanted to bring his friend, former St Pat’s student Keith Labad, but said he was told by rector Father Paul Martin that he Read more
The South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference is urging reforms in Swaziland, calling sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarchy a police state that is “tearing itself apart.” A statement issued Thursday after the bishops visited Swaziland said the king should lift a state of emergency that has been in place for nearly four decades, reinstate “the full Read more
Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands have fared poorly in the Amnesty International report on human rights for 2010. The report claims Thousands of people in the Pacific are being denied social and economic opportunity Human rights defenders have been threatened, imprisoned and tortured, and gender based violence is still a major issue in the Read more
Amnesty International has marked its 50th Anniversary by criticising the Vatican for the first time on its handling of child protection. The 2011 report, “The State of the World’s Human Rights,” examines human rights in 157 countries, and Amnesty International criticises the Vatican for failing to honour its obligations under the United nations Charter on the Read more
“We are witnessing unprecedented levels of human rights change as protests for freedom and justice spread like wildfire across the Middle East and North Africa. While our Government has been supportive of these promising changes, its failure to live up to our own human rights obligations smacks of hypocrisy” says Patrick Holmes, Chief Executive Officer Read more