By Polly Johnson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SYDNEY, Australia – In an effort to unveil a new refugee policy, Australia’s new leader has proposed a plan to develop a regional processing center in East Timor in order to curb public opposition to an influx of asylum seekers from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

“In recent days I have discussed with [President] Ramos Horta of East Timor the possibility of establishing a regional processing center for the purpose of receiving and processing irregular entrance to the region,” Julia Gillard announced in her first policy speech since assuming her role as prime minister.

“A boat ride to Australia would just be a ticket back to the regional processing center,” Gillard added.

A hotly debated topic in Australia, illegal immigration has been dealt with in different ways by past leaders. Prime Minister John Howard set up detention centers in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. In 2007, Kevin Rudd supported a processing center at Australian-run Christmas Island, which can no longer cope with the number of people.

Though Australia only receives a tiny fraction of the world’s asylum seekers, since 2007 more than four thousand asylum seekers, many of them Afghans and Sri Lankans, have made the dangerous voyage via Indonesia on rickety boats, fleeing war and persecution.

East Timor’s deputy prime minister, José Luis Guterres, says that the country’s government has told Australia that East Timor is not ready establish such a center, though the government will consider Gillard’s request and send an official response soon.

Added East Timor’s foreign minister Zacarias da Costa, “We are a new country. Of course our borders are not yet one hundred percent secure. We are still developing our policies and we’ve been working together with Australia to strengthen our own mechanisms.”

Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott has also announced measures to deal with asylum seekers, including prioritizing offshore refugee applicants and turning away incoming boats when possible.

Gillard also announced that the Australian government was lifting the suspension on processing claims for Sri Lankans after the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report that the Sri Lankan refugee situation was improving.

For more information, please see:

Sydney Morning Herald – Labor’s Indian Ocean Solution – 7 July 2010

ABC News – East Timor ‘not ready’ for asylum centre – 6 July 2010

Al Jazeera – Australia plans new refugee policy – 6 July 2010

CBC News – Australia proposes East Timor refugee hub – 6 July 2010

New York Times – Australia Proposes Refugee Hub in East Timor – 6 July 2010

Sky News – PM Gillard Attempts To Calm Immigration Storm – 6 July 2010

By Joseph Juhn
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SYDNEY, Australia – The Australian government plans to transfer all asylum seekers currently located in Christmas Island to a mainland detention center. These refugees – about 600 Afghans and 150 Sri Lankans – have arrived by boat since the suspension took effect in April of this year.

Australia’s immigration minister Chris Evans says the government is looking for mainland sites to accommodate the asylum seekers.

“It is our intention to take that cohort probably in the first instance to Curtin where we’re increasing our capacity, but we’ll obviously make judgments based on individuals,” he said.

Senator Evans says he hopes the improving situation in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka – where most of refugees come from – will soon allow the Australian government to send some of the asylum seekers back.

“The experience we’ve had since the suspension has confirmed what we were seeing in the few months before that – that we’re getting a much higher refusal rate,” he said.

“Many of the people who are coming to this country are no longer found to be refugees and we’re able to – at the end of their processes – potentially return them.”

For more information, please see:

Radio New Zealand – Asylum seekers being moved to mainland – 3 June 2010
Radio Australia – 750 asylum seekers head to Australian mainland centres – 3 June 2010
ABC News – 750 asylum seekers heading for mainland centres – 3 June 2010

By Sovereign Hager
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor-News

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea- A cholera outbreak, which started in August of 2009 appears to be getting worse. There have been over 600 cases reported since August and reports of the disease are no longer only appearing in rural areas. There have been reports of the disease in the capital city of Port Moresby.

The government declared a public health emergency in August after there were reports that public funds to fight the disease were “dried up.”  The spread of the disease to urban areas has been linked to sanitation problems.

A health expert told Radio News Australia that in “the urban areas you’ve got a lot of settlement areas, low income settlement areas, and also enclaves of squatter settlements and these are generally not well serviced with good quality water and sanitation standards.”

When asked about government preparedness for such an outbreak, the government stressed that Papua New Guinea has “very limited resources within its health care sector . . . they generally have a high burden of health related issues, things like malaria, TB, HIV Aids etc . . . when diseases like this come along, they really have to divert resources from those areas to deal.”

Government officials are calling for multi-sector collaboration to combat the disease aggressively.

For more information, please see:

Top News-Cholera Outbreak in Papua New Guinea’s Capital Port Moresby-4 June 2010

Radio News Australia-Death Toll Rises from PNG Cholera Epidemic-3 June 2010

Radio News Australia-Poor Sanitation and Water Quality Fuelling-3 June 2010

By Cindy Trinh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea – People of Papua New Guinea (PNG) have signed a petition calling on Parliament to reject the proposed Ombudsman Commission Amendment Bill. They fear that the Bill will allow senior politicians in PNG to be free of investigation. The Governor of PNG’s National Capital District has offered to organize a meeting to discuss the controversial bill.

The PNG government’s draft of the Bill is designed by politicians to allow the Ombudsman Commission funds to be cut. People in PNG fear that this bill will prevent the Ombudsman’s Office from investigating senior politicians.

Under the proposed legislation, the Ombudsman Commission would not longer be able to refer politicians to the Leadership Tribunal, or prevent MPs from using Electoral Development Funds for anything by earmarked projects in their electorates.

PNG’s Media Council president, Joe Kanekane, reported that he was given the petition opposing the Bill. Kanekane, who is also the co-chair of the Community Coalition Against Corruption, also reported that the petition was signed by more than 500 people in Aiyura Valley, including representatives from Southern Highlands, Hela, Western Highlands, Jiwaka, Chimbu, and Eastern Highlands.

The petition was an unexpected outcome of a 3-day media literacy workshop that was conducted by the Media Council from April 14-16 for the Highlands region, which was attended by 40 participants.

The workshop included a forum on the awareness of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and PNG’s performance, which then attracted more than 500 people.

Media Council’s executive director, Nimo Walter Kama, who launched the workshop, stated: “None of the forum participants had any idea of what the MDGs were. They did not even know the targets that were supposed to be achieved and were concerned that 10 years had already gone without any real achievements.”

Kama further stated: “But most forum respondents recognized that the MDG targets of ending hunger and poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child deaths, improving maternal health, curbing HIV/AIDS, malaria and other preventable diseases, and ensuring environmental sustainability, would transform rural communities.”

Kama reported that during a question and answer session in the forum, a petition to Parliament was proposed to focus on key developmental issues. The petition focused on the concern that PNG, as a signatory to the MDGs, had downgraded their efforts to tackle on the developmental issues that PNG people face. There was a lot of enthusiasm to sign the petition.

In light of the strong advocacy for the petition, the Governor of PNG’s National Capital District, Powes Parkop, has offered to organize a meeting between NGOs and MP Moses Maladina to discuss the parliamentary bill.

Parkop reported that he wants to play the middle-man because he does not want to see a planned protest march against the bill to occur in Port Moresby. He fears of the potential destruction if protestors lose control.

However, Parkop’s fear of a march has already been in progress. A march is being planned by the Community Coalition Against Corruption. The NGO group is concerned over what they see as a move to weaken the Ombudsman’s powers.

Parkop responded by stating that while some of the proposed amendments should be changed, some provisions do have merit, and thus the bill should be scrutinized properly.

For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand International – Governor of PNG capital offers to organize dialogue over controversial Ombudsman bill – 29 April 2010

Pacific Islands Media Association (Pima Nius) – Media Council receives petition opposing Ombudsman fund-cutting bill – 27 April 2010

Pacific.Scoop – Media Council receives petition opposing Ombudsman fund-cutting bill – 27 April 2010

By Eileen Gould
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

CANBERRA, Australia – The Australian Government has refused to incorporate human rights into the law, an action which has been criticized by the ACT Human Rights Commissioner.

A recommendation suggested that the administration of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd adopt a law, allowing judges to review Australia’s laws, practices, and policies for human rights compliance.

Instead, Julia Gillard, Minister for Education, and Robert McClelland, Attorney General, announced the Government’s initiative to educate Australians and ensure their access to information about human rights.

According to Mr. McClelland, “[e]nhancing [Australia’s] efforts to improve human rights education is critical as too many Australians are not informed about what human rights are or how they are currently protected.”

Among the education initiatives included in the framework is a provision for “greater support for human rights education across the country, including primary and secondary schools” and “investing $2 million for the development and delivery of community education and engagement programs to promote a greater understanding of human rights by non-governmental organizations (NGOs)”.

The Federal Government plans to invest a total of $12 million for human right education, including the establishment of the framework for human rights, and also includes the formation of a new Parliament committee on this issue. However, the Government refuses to set up a Bill of Rights as part of this framework, contrary to recommendations made by an expert panel.

This decision, according to Human Rights Commissioner Dr. Helen Watchirs, goes against Australia’s wishes.  A national consultation process revealed that approximately 29,000 submissions out of 35,000 favored a Human Rights Act.  The research revealed that Australians supported human rights education rather than a human rights charter, yet there is no doubt Australians would support a human rights act.

Based on the experiences of two provinces, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory, both of which have implemented Human Rights Acts, advocates claim that a national Act would be beneficial, as it would promote a more accountable government, address poverty, and improve public services.

This new Human Rights Framework will be reviewed in 2014.

For more information please see:

Sydney Morning Herald – A charter of rights is divisive? The vast majority think not – 23 April 2010

ABC – Human Rights Framework: icing without the cake – 22 April 2010

ABC News – Govt ‘ignoring’ Australian’s wishes on human rights – 22 April 2010

Govmonitor – Australia Outlines Education Initiatives to Enhance Human Rights – 22 April 2010