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	People are being detained indefinitely in unacceptable conditions by Australian Lawyers Alliance, News agencies   June 2015   Border Force Act could see immigration detention centre workers jailed for whistleblowing, by Sarah Sedghi. (The World Today)   Lawyers and doctors in Australia say they are highly concerned about new laws applying to people working in detention centres.   The Border Force Act may see government-contracted workers at onshore and offshore detention facilities risk up to two years in jail if they speak out about what they see.   Barrister and spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance Greg Barns said the act had a "chilling effect".   "It effectively turns the Department of Immigration into a secret security organisation with police powers," he said. "And what it does is it will prevent professional groups, international human rights bodies, doctors, counsellors, teachers, anyone who''s working in immigration detention centres who raises concerns about the treatment of asylum seekers and conditions in those centres, if they don''t have the authorisation of the department to reveal that information to the media or any other person or organisation then they can go to jail for up to two years, so it will have a chilling effect."   The Act was passed with bipartisan support, with only the Greens opposing it.   Mr Barns said it gave the Federal Government too much power over what can be said about immigration detention centres.   "If for example a psychologist is working in a detention centre, that psychologist then comes back from the centre and writes an article, for the ABC or for a newspaper documenting in that person''s clinical opinion — the long-term physical and mental harm that''''s being meted out to asylum seekers — that person could go to jail," he said.   "I mean, this is the sort of legislation that you wouldn''t find unsurprising in countries that don''t have real democracy. "But for this legislation to pass an Australian Parliament, I think it''s appalling."   Dr John-Paul Sanggaran used to work for the Immigration Department''s healthcare provider International Health and Medical Services on Christmas Island.   He said it was already difficult to speak out when worried for the welfare of asylum seekers and was concerned about what the new laws would mean for people such as doctors, nurses and social workers who work in detention centres.   "We already have a situation where there''s a significant veil of secrecy around immigration detention. Some of the barriers include the fact that you could lose your job," he said.   "That''s obviously personally devastating for you and your family, and I guess we already signed secrecy or confidentiality agreements and people are already concerned about breaking those because they don''t want to deal with the legal consequences.   "Add to that an explicit two-year jail sentence for doing what we all should all be doing — advocating for our patients, looking after those for whom we have a duty of care — and you''re just simply going to increase the barriers that exist to people coming out and talking about what they see in immigration detention which is gross human rights violations."   Dr Sanggaran will today publish an open letter about the concerns he and others have. "We''re not going to stop talking about what we''ve seen," he said. "The things that we''ve seen are too terrible, human rights abuses, sexual abuse, child abuse, and we''re not going to respond to these threats from the Government."   Two doctors, writing in the British medical journal have criticised Australia for a new law which could be used to silence health workers treating asylum seekers.   From July, contracted workers including doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals face a prison sentence of up to two years for blowing the whistle on substandard medical care given to asylum seekers in detention centres.   David Berger, at Broome Hospital, says the only reason to suppress doctors “is to avoid embarrassing revelations about how Australia is flouting its international humanitarian obligations towards refugees and is subjecting them to treatment that violates the United Nations Convention Against Torture”.   He says the Border Force Act 2015 “places doctors in direct opposition to our professional duty to promote the best interests of our patients at all times”.   In a second article, Professor David Isaacs, a children’s doctor in NSW, believes this is the first time in Australian history that doctors have faced imprisonment for telling the truth about serious harms being inflicted on patients. He says he was “utterly appalled” by the living conditions on Nauru and by the treatment of detainees.   He urged his colleagues worldwide “to protest against repressive legislation which tries to silence doctors from telling the truth about conditions harming their patients, and which is a serious blow to the democratic process”.   * There have been reports of the sexual abuse of children and women in detention centres. The laws also have the potential to set a dangerous precedent in relation to the reporting of abuse in wide range of other circumstances.   http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-30/detention-centre-workers-face-imprisonment-for-whistleblowing/6584392 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-01/immigration-centre-doctors-dare-the-government-to/6588062 http://www.businessinsider.com.au/doctors-have-used-a-prestigeous-medical-journal-to-protest-australias-repressive-laws-on-asylum-seekers-2015-6 http://www.lawyersalliance.com.au/news/doctors-should-obtain-legal-advice-before-treating-asylum-seekers http://www.lawyersalliance.com.au/news/injuries-in-detention-centres-apparently-not-investigated-by-comcare http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jan/15/save-the-children-workers-unfairly-fired-on-nauru-for-political-reasons-report http://www.savethechildren.org.au/about-us/media-and-publications/latest-news/the-dark-truth-about-nauru http://www.savethechildren.org.au/   People are being detained indefinitely in unacceptable conditions, write David Manne, Kate Bones from the Refugee & Immigration Legal Centre.   The Australian Government policy of exiling those seeking our protection to Nauru and Manus Island is unsustainable on any measure – whether human, moral, legal, financial or practical.   As evidence mounts of the immense – and scandalous – human and financial costs of this policy, this policy has to change. We cannot keep spending billions of dollars to exile, incarcerate without end, and then ultimately destroy, vulnerable children, women and men – people we are morally and legally duty-bound to protect.   Evidence of the cruelty and degradation inflicted on asylum seekers held on Nauru and Manus is overwhelming. A swathe of reports from bodies such as the UN Refugee Agency, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have consistently concluded that the policy is violating human rights and causing untold harm to people held there.   Independent bodies such as the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Moss Inquiry have confirmed widespread allegations of child abuse, sexual assault and rape in detention on Nauru. Children are suffering from extreme physical, emotional, psychological and developmental distress tantamount to child abuse. Self-harm is rife. Doctors have spoken out against appalling inadequacies in medical care.   Perversely, these conditions replicate the kind of inhumanity from which so many asylum seekers have fled. People are detained indefinitely in subhuman conditions. Their freedom of expression and communication is suppressed. They are subject to additional brutality from those in power over them.   Despite serial denials by the government, as a matter of law there is no doubt that Australia is responsible for this deplorable harm, given that we fund and effectively control these operations on Manus and Nauru.   In these times of humanitarian crises and fiscal pressure, there are so many better ways that these billions of dollars could be spent. They could be applied to making an even greater contribution to protecting some of the 60 million people fleeing conflict and persecution globally, starting with those who''ve sought refuge here. While we''ve agreed to give an extra $44 million to the UNHCR for the Syrian refugee crisis, we will spend more than 10 times that amount to continue the detention of the 1500 people on Nauru and Manus for another year.   Last year, the government-appointed Commission of Audit indirectly highlighted the case for change when it calculated that the annual cost of keeping an asylum seeker in offshore detention exceeded $400,000 – more than 10 times the cost of processing an asylum seeker in the Australian community.   For those subject to offshore processing, there is currently no end in sight. The proposed resettlement options for recognised refugees are expensive dead-ends. Recognised refugees on Manus Island are living in a funded "transit centre", with few basic freedoms, in fear and with no real prospects of resettlement in PNG.   Even the improbable plan of "resettling" refugees in the impoverished and insecure Cambodia seems to have disintegrated, with just four refugees taking up the offer. This plan has cost Australia $55 million thus far – another stark sign of unsustainability.   It''s worth remembering that when offshore processing was revived in 2012, it was only envisaged as a short-term "circuit breaker" and not as a long-term solution. But as the policy now stands, people are being held in indefinite exile.   The principal justification remains the alleged necessity to deter others from coming by boat. But in truth, this conscious, calculated cruelty is not necessity – it''s a choice. And the wrong one. The ethical rock on which our policies must stand is that it is never acceptable to inflict irreparable harm on innocent people we are obliged to protect.   We have shown our capacity for compassion in response to the Syrian crisis, lifting the intake of Syrian refugees by 12,000. Yet at the same time, our policies are rapidly destroying the lives of refugees on Nauru and Manus, including Syrians who have fled the very same dangers as those we''ve agreed to resettle. The inconsistency is impossible to reconcile.   And herein lies the rub – epitomised by Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull''s swift transition from "concern" about the suffering of those in limbo to dispelling any hope of a major policy shift in the short-term which could alleviate it.   Locking in a policy where the only outcome can be suffering without end is untenable. We must urgently move beyond sloganeering to an honest dialogue that recognises that the policy never was and never can be a long-term solution.   There must be immediate action to improve conditions and ameliorate abuse while making those operating the camps more accountable. But we must also face the fact that offshore processing of this kind cannot be done humanely, and that human warehousing cannot be done decently.   The agony of those currently condemned to a life of limbo must end. Attention must turn to viable alternatives, which involve expanding resettlement options in places where those judged in need of protection can rebuild their lives in safety and with dignity.   The billions current being invested in the misery of offshore processing should instead be spent developing a co-operative protection system in our region in which the responsibility for rescuing and resettling refugees humanely is shared among the countries of our region.   As Malcolm Turnbull said last week, it''s important for leaders to possess "the empathy to walk in somebody else''s shoes". We, as a nation, must also find the moral and humanitarian imagination to walk in the shoes of those held in limbo on Manus and Nauru. If we don''t, we place in jeopardy not only their lives, but the kind of society we want to live in.   * David Manne is executive director and Kate Bones is a lawyer at the Refugee & Immigration Legal Centre.   http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16503&LangID=E http://www.acoss.org.au/media-releases/?media_release=government-should-refer-nauru-child   http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/04/police-investigate-save-the-children-whistleblowers-over-nauru-abuse-report http://hrlc.org.au/damning-evidence-of-serious-child-harm-in-detention/ http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-30/steketee-scott-morrison/6357930 http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Joint-statement-end-detention-of-children.pdf http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/rohingya-refugee-crisis/6494910   Jan 2015   The reports coming out of Manus Island right now should be enough to shock us, but they aren''t. What will it take? Barrister Julian Burnside has some ideas.   Reports about what is happening on Manus Island are mixed. According to inside sources, hundreds of asylum seekers are on a hunger strike, many have sewn their lips together, and tensions are high. According to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, security levels have been high, as a precaution, and the hunger strike and lip sewing are the result of urging by refugee advocates. There has been little apparent public concern.   Some of the hunger strikers have said they are willing to die, and want to donate their organs to Australians. The public, in its post-Christmas torpor, was unmoved. Letters sent from Manus have been published, but this has provoked outrage only in that minority of Australians who are concerned about refugees. The public remain unmoved.   In February 2014, Reza Berati was murdered inside the Manus detention facility, allegedly by members of the staff who were supposedly keeping the detainees safe. I have been informed that eyewitnesses to the murder are still being held in solitary confinement. No one has yet been brought to trial for the murder. In September 2014, Hamid Kehazaei died of septicaemia after an infected foot was inadequately treated. Nobody has been held to account for his death in what looks like significant medical negligence. Public reaction to these things has been minimal.   There are a few facts we all know, or should know. First (and arguably the most significant fact): the asylum seekers held on Manus and in other detention centres are not "illegal". They have committed no offence by coming to Australia seeking protection.   They are held in captivity without charge and without trial, because their conduct in seeking asylum is not an offence under Australian law. The government of Australia, and parts of the media, refer to them as "illegals" because it makes locking them up look faintly respectable. When they arrive in Australia asking to be protected from persecution, Australia takes them forcibly, against their will, to Manus. There they are held in uncomfortable, unhygienic conditions in tropical heat. They wait until their claims for refugee status are determined. Some of them have been there for about two years.   It should shock us to know how comprehensively the government has lied to us about Manus. It lies to us by calling asylum seekers "illegal". It lies to us about the conditions in which they are held. Maybe it would shock us to know that the people who are being mistreated by our government (and at vast expense to the taxpayer) are just ordinary people: human beings who have the same hopes and desires, the same frailties and fears as most of us.   Second: It is very clear that, if you lock up an innocent person in circumstances where they do not know how long it will be before they are released, they fall into hopelessness and despair after about 12 or 18 months. One very well-documented response to this despair is self-harm. Typically, they will cut themselves, or sew their lips together, or try to starve themselves to death.   Third: conditions in Manus are very harsh. In October 2013, the UNHCR reported on conditions on Manus. It noted:   Overall, UNHCR was deeply troubled to observe that the current policies, operational approaches and harsh physical conditions at the [detention centre] do not comply with international standards and in particular constitute arbitrary and mandatory detention under international law; and do not provide safe and humane conditions of treatment in detention.   There is not much doubt that our treatment of asylum seekers in Manus constitutes a crime against humanity. This is a matter of legal analysis, not political rhetoric. The hard facts about the horrific conditions on Manus Island that I''ve outlined above may not be enough to shock us, but the one thing that really might shock us is to see Abbott, Morrison and Dutton prosecuted in the International Criminal Court for those crimes. That''s a pro bono case I would gladly prosecute.   * Julian Burnside AO QC is an Australian barrister and an advocate for human rights and fair treatment of refugees. Visit the related web page
	Special Rapporteur: Combat impunity and enact laws to protect human rights defenders by Phil Lynch International Service for Human Rights   14.10.2014   (Geneva) – The need to combat impunity for attacks against human rights defenders, together with the enactment of specific laws and policies to protect their work, have been identified as key priorities by the new UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Michel Forst, in his inaugural report.   The report, which will be presented to the General Assembly in New York next week, sets out a vision and priorities for the mandate over the coming three years, including a focus on groups of human rights defenders who are ‘most exposed’ or at risk, such as those working to promote economic, social and cultural rights, the rights of minorities, the rights of LGBT persons, women human rights defenders, and those working on issues of business and human rights or on accountability for past violations. According to the Special Rapporteur, each of his ‘future thematic and mission reports will contain a specific section dedicated to analysing the development of trends and particular threats facing the most exposed groups’.   Building on the recommendation of the previous Special Rapporteur that States enact specific laws and policies to protect human rights defenders, Mr Forst’s inaugural report identifies a need to ‘intensify efforts to convince governments to develop specific national measures, following the examples of Brazil, Colombia, Cote d’Ivoire and Mexico’ and foreshadows a future study focusing on the importance of national laws and mechanisms and ways to improve their effectiveness.   He also pledges to play a significant role in the identification and dissemination of ‘good practices’ in the implementation of the Declaration of Human Rights Defenders, including through a more visible social media presence for the mandate, such as Facebook and Twitter.   The report expresses grave concern at the related issues of lack of cooperation with the mandate by some States, and the intimidation and reprisals faced by many human rights defenders and non-governmental organisations in connection with their engagement with international and regional human rights mechanisms.   The Special Rapporteur is ‘struck by the number and gravity of threats’ against those who cooperate with the UN, the report says, including ‘threats against the defenders themselves or their families, defamation campaigns, death threats, physical violence, abductions, hounding by law enforcement, assassinations or various forms of harassment and intimidation by the police’.   In this connection, the Special Rapporteur pledges to follow up more actively and systematically with States in relation to the investigation and remediation of alleged threats and attacks against defenders, together with the implementation of recommendations to ensure their protection. He also pledges to provide ‘regular and detailed information to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly’ on the status of States’ responses to communications and implementation of recommendations, bringing much needed additional transparency and pressure to bear in this regard.   The need to ensure accountability and combat impunity for attacks against defenders comes through as a strong theme in the Special Rapporteur’s report, with Mr Forst identifying that ‘it is partially because of the de facto impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of reprisals against defenders that the phenomenon grows and expands’ and pledging that ‘one of the main lines of his work will be to combat the culture of impunity’. It is likely that the Special Rapporteur will dedicate a forthcoming report to this topic.   Finally, the Special Rapporteur identifies a need to further intensify cooperation with other UN mandate holders, together with the Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights Defenders appointed by regional mechanisms, including the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.   In this regard, it is notable that the Special Rapporteur has already issued joint statements with other mandate holders, such as the Special Rapporteurs on Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Association and Assembly, on issues including the detention of Bahraini human rights defender Maryam Al-Khawaja, the use of anti-terrorism legislation to criminalise human rights defenders in Ethiopia, and the passage of draconian anti-protest legislation in the Australian state of Tasmania.   http://www.ishr.ch/news/special-rapporteur-combat-impunity-and-enact-laws-protect-human-rights-defenders http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/SRHRDefenders/Pages/SRHRDefendersIndex.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/AboutUs/CivilSociety/CS_space_UNHRSystem_Guide.pdf Visit the related web page
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