Baptising babies into the Catholic Church suppresses people’s freedoms for life, the former Irish president says. Mary McAleese thinks the Church needs to overhaul the practice of baptising babies. She says it violates 21st-century human rights. In an address to Oxford University, McAleese said canon law claims the Church is entitled to limit, compromise and Read more
Australia and New Zealand have raised deep concerns about human rights abuses against Muslim minorities in China. Citing “the growing number of credible reports” of severe violations, both countries’ foreign ministers say the abuses are occurring in the Xinjiang region. The violations include “restrictions on freedom of religion, mass surveillance, large-scale extra-judicial detentions, as well Read more
More than 100,000 people are in limbo overseas due to an Australian migration policy appearing to lack compassion. Many are awaiting visas to join their partners who are in Australia. Due to the pandemic, Australia closed its borders to almost everyone except Australian citizens, permanent residents, resident New Zealand citizens or immediate family members. The Read more
Moves to reinterpret the very foundations of human rights have left a Vatican representative to the United Nations “deeply concerned”. In a statement Oct. 6, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said that the reinterpretation of human rights benefited the powerful at the expense of the weak. “The Read more
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has accused China of “gross and egregious” human rights abuses against its Uighurs and said sanctions against those responsible cannot be ruled out. Reports of forced sterilisation and wider persecution of the Muslim group were “reminiscent of something not seen for a long time”, he told the BBC. The UK Read more
Thirty five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and human rights organisations have called on the global Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB), based in the Netherlands, to strip Rio Tinto of its status as a global human rights leader, following the company’s blasting of a 46,000 year old Aboriginal sacred site in the Pilbara region, Western Read more
A seven-year prison sentence for a mentally-ill man who kissed a stranger on Cuba St went well beyond excessive punishment and would shock properly informed New Zealanders, the Court of Appeal has found. But despite the finding, two of the justices involved in the case say the man cannot be discharged because of New Zealand’s Read more
The Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences is concerned about China’s new security law in Hong Kong. In a statement, Cardinal Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon in Myanmar and president of the Asian Bishops’ Conferences says the bishops are calling for Christians to pray for the people of Hong Kong and China. China’s President Xi Jinping Read more
Sales of staff-monitoring software have skyrocketed thanks to businesses wanting to keep track of what workers are up to while working from home as a result of Covid-19 restrictions. Ian Howard, CEO of brand and ethics consultancy Bright Street Studio, says even the names – like Time Doctor or Staff Cop – can feel “slightly Read more
Cambodia’s government has been using the coronavirus pandemic as a cover to make arbitrary arrests of opposition political leaders and its critics, says a US-based human rights organization. The government has detained at least 30 people for spreading “fake news” since the start of the outbreak in the country in January, New York-based Human Rights Read more