A French priest has received a human rights award for research uncovering millions of previously unaccounted-for Nazi genocide victims. Father Patrick Desbois was awarded the Lantos Foundation’s Human Rights Prize last week for being a “vital voice standing up for the values of decency, dignity, freedom, and justice.” The prize is named after a Holocaust Read more
In the one week, Australia’s human rights record made headlines in two quite different ways. First, the UN announced that Australia would be joining the Human Rights Council. Subsequently, the UN Human Rights Committee criticised Australia for ‘chronic non-compliance’ with the committee’s recommendations. Indeed, it reported that Australia’s non-compliance was ‘completely off the charts’. The dissonance of these two Read more
A Vatican official says sexist attitudes must change and women should be recognised as having equal worth as men and be allowed to fully exercise their human rights. This is an increasingly urgent issue because of the “resurgence of divisions in today’s world,” Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Sister Ma Theresa Trinh Vu Phuong has helped over 130 detained Vietnamese fishermen in a number of Papua New Guinean (PNG) prisons to return home. She looked after the needs of the detainees and served as their interpreter and mediator in court, said the secretary for communications and youth at Don Bosco Technical School at Read more
Pakistani Christians have suffered much persecution from the Islamic State. However the Archbishop of Lahore, Sebastian Shaw, says Pakistani Christians are realizing that God gave them a special calling to be his witnesses and work for the human rights and dignity of all in their country. Read more
Pacific Island vineyard workers thought coming to New Zealand would be a blessing, but after a season of low pay and broken promises they don’t think they will be back. They say the pay rates set out in the contracts they signed back in Vanuatu have been ignored, leaving them around $300 a week short Read more
Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Bill, which passed its third reading in Parliament last week, establishes a new legal framework for the river. Family First has taken the occasion as an opportunity to highlight the fact that the unborn child has no legal rights. They say the new law gives the Whanganui river Read more
Refugees and migrants will have to wait for the United Nations (U.N.) to ratify a draft international agreement to help settle their plight. At present, more people are forcibly displaced from their homes than at any time since the Second World War ended. But their circumstances are so politically contentious that after days of intense Read more
About 1,200 men, women, and children who sought refuge in Australia and were forcibly transferred to Nauru have suffered severe abuse, inhumane treatment, and neglect, according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Most of them have been held there for three years. They routinely face neglect by health workers and other service providers who Read more
At least three formal complaints have been lodged with the Ombudsman’s office over the Samoa Observer newspaper’s front page treatment of a young transgender victim of suicide. There have been mixed reactions to the paper’s more personal apology published in the Samoa Observer on Tuesdayover the signature of the editor in chief Gatoaitele Savea Sano Malifa. Read more