As an Australian, it did not trouble me greatly to listen to a senior Irish barrister dissect the worst elements of Australia’s human rights record at a recent conference in Dublin.
Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer have often said that Australians should not have to feel put down or bad when under attack from international do-gooders over government policy affecting human rights.
In a way they are right. The sort of people alert to human rights know that individuals should not be condemned on the basis of their government’s policies.
Irish barrister Bill Shipsey, SC, did a point-by-point job on Australia’s recent human rights record at a joint Australia and Irish Bar conference. It was the usual stuff: refugees, Aborigines, David Hicks and the failure to ratify the torture treaty.
It was more a lament than an accusation. The lament was that a country like Australia which was at the forefront of concern for international human rights for so long could now be failing in so many ways.
“Australia appears to be sending a message to the world that international solidarity and international law can be jettisoned just at the time when the world needs countries like Australia,” he said.
His lament was almost flattering.
“If my focus is on the position of Australia, it is certainly not because Ireland is without fault but it is in recognition of the fact that the power and influence of Australia and its role in the world is much more extensive,” he said.
The frequent response of Government Ministers to criticism like that of Shipsey’s is to something like: “Get real. If you are worried about human rights, have a look at XYZ African or Latin American tinpot dictatorship.”
But this misses the point on a couple of counts.
Human rights are absolute, so any lapse is a worry.
Further, a lot of the tinpot Latin American dictatorships are now democracies; they have got better. And so has the position in places like Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, and even quite a few African countries, like Botswana.
So the comparison is not Australia vs other countries, but Australia now compared to its role in the past. And this is the lament.
Australia made a vital contribution to the UN Charter to make sure human rights were placed among the primary objectives of the UN; helped draft the declaration; played major roles in the convention on the elimination of discrimination against women, treaties on the rights of the child, racial discrimination and the setting up of the International Criminal Court.
All governments make mistakes and their citizens bemoan them, but human rights failings stand out because they are fundamental. To the extent nations have values they are perhaps best illustrated by attitudes to human rights.
The sad thing is that Australia’s watering down of human rights as a response to “the war on terror” is not even in Australia’s best interest. Morality aside, it is not very smart.
Shipsey made the point quite forcefully.
“The world is being further endangered by a narrowly focused security agenda, the key feature of which has been a sustained attack on global standards and global institutions which constitute the system of human rights and international law. . . .” he said. “In the name of creating more security we see governments attacking human rights, flouting international law with impunity and turning their backs on multi-lateralism. We see it happening in the way in which many governments have adopted tough laws to ‘enhance security’. Many of these measures are sensible and necessary, but many others, including arguably parts of the Australian Federal legislation have clearly overstepped the bounds of international law and human rights.
“Many of these laws were rushed through in a matter of weeks, seriously undermining the ability of parliaments and civil society to scrutinise the proposals. Yet, most of them go to the heart of such fundamental principles as the right to fair trial, and not to be arbitrarily detained. . . .
“In the post September 11 environment even the absolute prohibition against torture is no longer absolute. These laws often target foreigners, refugees and asylum seekers. The ‘war on terror’ and the war in Iraq have created a deep sense of injustice and alienation by pitching one group of people against another. Increasing polarisation between communities has strengthened the hand of fundamentalists, Christian, Muslim or Hindu.”
In short, the failure to respect and uphold human rights universally has added to insecurity for people throughout the world.
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