Rule of Law

Mob rule and the ‘gentle’ nations of the West

You can talk a mob into anything; its feelings may be – usually are – on the whole generous and right; but it has no foundation for them; you may…

9 Comments

March 28, 2012

Accountability / ACT Government / Australian Federal Police / Bill of Rights / Corruption / Culture / Democracy / Discrimination/Racism / Equality / Government / Human Rights / Justice / Law Enforcement / Racism / Rule of Law

Why Australia needs a Royal Commission into the AFP

On August 30 last year Blak and Black lodged a petition on the GoPetition website calling for a Royal Commission into the Australian Federal Police (“AFP”). Blak and Black has…

14 Comments

March 24, 2012

Accountability / Asia-Pacific / Australian Federal Police / Australian Labor Party / Corruption / Discrimination/Racism / Human Rights / Hypocrisy / Justice / Law Enforcement / Racism / RAMSI / Rule of Law / West Papua

Vice-regal corruption: Australia and the UNSC

The Samoan Government has announced that Australian Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, will visit the country next week as part of a Pacific tour that also includes Nauru, Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Solomon…

10 Comments

March 21, 2012

Asia-Pacific / Culture / Discrimination/Racism / Equality / Human Rights / Justice / Law / Neo-Colonialism / Racism / Respect / Rule of Law / Shared humanity / West Papua

West Papua and the United Nations

July of 1969 was a big month. Whilst the ‘civilized’ world was focused on the deployment of three men to the moon, Indonesia was finalizing steps to wrest control of…

11 Comments

March 20, 2012

Accountability / Asia-Pacific / Corporate responsibility / Corruption / Democracy / Ernst & Young / Genocide / Globalisation / Human Rights / Indonesia / Mining / Rule of Law / Shared humanity / West Papua

Silence no longer so golden

Complicity takes many forms, as discussed in posts by both Bakchos and me. Many believe that silent complicity is the least culpable, but to my mind if the silence enables…

21 Comments

March 14, 2012

Accountability / Asia-Pacific / Australian Federal Police / Commonwealth Government / Corruption / Equality / Government / Justice / Law / Law Enforcement / PNG / Rule of Law

Corruption and accountability: the AFP in the Asia/Pacific region

The criminal justice system consists of three main parts: (1) Legislative (create laws); (2) adjudication (courts); and (3) corrections (prisons, probation, parole, fines, community service). In a criminal justice system,…

20 Comments

March 12, 2012

Accountability / Asia-Pacific / Australian Federal Police / Commonwealth Government / Corruption / Discrimination/Racism / Fred Martens / Government / Justice / Law / Law Enforcement / Neo-Colonialism / PNG / Racism / RAMSI / Rule of Law / Solomon Islands

An ‘Ethics Commissioner’ without ethics: welcome to Australia

Yesterday, Thursday I received a phone call from Captain Fred Martens, the man who spent a 1,000 days in jail, having been wrongly convicted of an offence under Australia’s Child…

20 Comments

March 9, 2012

Accountability / ACT Government / Australian Federal Police / Australian Labor Party / Corruption / Discrimination/Racism / Ernst & Young / Former Commissioner / Government / Justice / Law Enforcement / Racism / Rule of Law

Theft and racism, the festering sores in Canberra

For some years now I have been considering the concept of complicity. What constitutes complicity, how far does it extend, where does responsibility for wrongdoing cease? You can all blame…

13 Comments

March 7, 2012

Accountability / Corporate profit / Corporate responsibility / Corruption / Culture / Equality / Globalisation / Human Rights / International Law / Rule of Law / Shared humanity

Mohamad v. Palestinian Authority, the concept of corporate accountability

This case arises from the petitioners’ claim that Azzam Rahim was detained, tortured, and killed by “the security forces of the Palestinian Authority” in late 1995, around the time the…

26 Comments

March 7, 2012

Accountability / ACT Government / Asia-Pacific / Australian Federal Police / Australian Labor Party / Corruption / Discrimination/Racism / Fred Martens / Government / Julian Moti / Justice / Law Enforcement / PNG / Racism / Rule of Law

Martens, Moti and the ‘rule of law’ in Australia

Captain Fred Martens, whom I have written extensively about on Blak and Black in the past, was employed as a commercial pilot flying light aircraft within PNG and between PNG…

16 Comments

March 6, 2012

Corporate profit / Corporate responsibility / Corruption / Environment / Genocide / Human Rights / International Law / Law / Law Enforcement / Mining / Rule of Law

Corporate crimes against humanity a product of our global economy

Crimes against humanity, torture, prolonged arbitrary detention, extrajudicial executions -- all of those human rights norms are defined by actions. They're not defined by whether the perpetrator is a human…

1 Comment

March 1, 2012

Culture / Democracy / Equality / Human Rights / Law / Respect / Rule of Law / Shared humanity

Human dignity and the idea of justice, part 1

The idea of human dignity consists in recognizing that man is a being that has ends proper to himself, his own ends, to be freely complied with by himself. Or…

5 Comments

February 28, 2012

Accountability / Asia-Pacific / Corporate profit / Corporate responsibility / Corruption / Culture / Discrimination/Racism / Environment / Equality / Genocide / Globalisation / Human Rights / Indonesia / Justice / Law / Racism / Rule of Law / West Papua

The Jayapura Five: Our choices and actions do affect the lives of others

Little fly, Thy summer’s play My thoughtless hand Has brushed away. Am not I A fly like thee? Or art not thou A man like me? For I dance And…

18 Comments

February 21, 2012

ACT Government / Australian Labor Party / Democracy / Discrimination/Racism / Equality / Globalisation / Government / Human Rights / Law Enforcement / Racism / Respect / Rule of Law / WA Police

Racism in Australia’s criminal justice system

Indigenous people in Australia are subjected to more aggressive treatment by the criminal justice system compared with other Australians.

21 Comments

February 16, 2012

Discrimination/Racism / Equality / Equality of opportunity / Human Rights / Justice / Law / Political theory / Rule of Law

Racism and the politics of power

Racial classification today is commonplace; people routinely catalogue each other as members of this or that race, and seem to assume that everyone can be thus classified Bernard Boxill, "Introduction"…

16 Comments

February 15, 2012

Commonwealth Government / Democracy / Discrimination/Racism / Equality / Equality of opportunity / Government / Rule of Law / White Australia

Australian Constitutional reform

Following on from the discussion of belonging and what the Australian flag represents to many Indigenous Australians, this post gives consideration to the current debate about acknowledgement of Australia's Aborigines…

26 Comments

February 12, 2012

Accountability / Corruption / Discrimination/Racism / Equality / Genocide / Human Rights / Justice / Law / Respect / Rule of Law

Am I not a man and a brother: A campaign for someone else’s rights

In the late afternoon of May 22, 1787, a group of a dozen men officially assembled at James Phillips' bookstore and printing shop located at 2 George Yard, London. While…

4 Comments

February 9, 2012

Accountability / Asia-Pacific / Corporate profit / Corporate responsibility / Corruption / Discrimination/Racism / Ernst & Young / Genocide / Globalisation / Human Rights / Indonesia / International Law / Justice / Law / Mining / Political theory / Rule of Law / Shared humanity / West Papua

Genocide in West Papua, collective responsibility and the role of Ernst & Young

The TNI under Suharto was seen as different from other armies because: Indonesian army sees itself as quite different from other armies in the world, because it was never created…

2 Comments

February 4, 2012

Accountability / Asia-Pacific / Corruption / Genocide / Globalisation / Human Rights / International Law / Law / Mining / Neo-Colonialism / Pacific Neighbours / Respect / Rule of Law / Shared humanity / West Papua

West Papua and the vote of no choice!

These feelings which we Cubans have already acquired will have to be shared by someday. Today it hurts us if a Cuban is hungry, if a Cuban has no doctor,…

0 Comments

February 3, 2012

Accountability / Asia-Pacific / Australian Federal Police / Commonwealth Government / Corruption / Democracy / Discrimination/Racism / Equality / Government / International Law / Julian Moti / Justice / Law / Law Enforcement / PNG / RAMSI / Rule of Law / Solomon Islands

Lost Sovereignty; a disgraced judge and a kidnapped Attorney-General

Carl Schmitt’s Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty is both famous and obscure. A twentieth-century political theory, containing two canonical sentences: "Sovereign is he who decides on…

1 Comment

January 31, 2012

Rule of Law

Mob rule and the ‘gentle’ nations of the West

Why Australia needs a Royal Commission into the AFP

Vice-regal corruption: Australia and the UNSC

West Papua and the United Nations

Silence no longer so golden

Corruption and accountability: the AFP in the Asia/Pacific region

An ‘Ethics Commissioner’ without ethics: welcome to Australia

Theft and racism, the festering sores in Canberra

Mohamad v. Palestinian Authority, the concept of corporate accountability

Martens, Moti and the ‘rule of law’ in Australia

Corporate crimes against humanity a product of our global economy

Human dignity and the idea of justice, part 1

The Jayapura Five: Our choices and actions do affect the lives of others

Racism in Australia’s criminal justice system

Racism and the politics of power

Australian Constitutional reform

Am I not a man and a brother: A campaign for someone else’s rights

Genocide in West Papua, collective responsibility and the role of Ernst & Young

West Papua and the vote of no choice!

Lost Sovereignty; a disgraced judge and a kidnapped Attorney-General

RAMSI - the scion of the juggernaut of greed

AFP accused of fabricating evidence, yet again!

Moti affair

Moti affair

Moti appeal exposes mixed loyalties and judicial corruption

Moti end game

Letters to the editor: Article by Bakchos

Co-operate or else! AFP thuggery for a white Australia

The strange case of Bill Johnson, a study in neo-colonial hypocrisy

Neo-colonialism in the Torres Strait

Moti and other affairs

Comment: Excellent Read