Do Australians own up to their own racism and discrimination?

How do Australians tolerate the 'soft' apartheid which operates in so many parts of their nation?
Posted by Advocacy at St Pauls on Tuesday, 22 December 2015

Charlie Hebdo causes Australians to ponder and comment on free speech and the freedom to offend

From The Monthly and its segment, PoliticOz of 13 January 2015

FREE TO OFFEND?

The Australian this morning is running Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson's argument that French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo "could not be printed in Australia under existing restrictions on free speech". Those restrictions, according to Wilson and the Australian, are contained in section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA). According to Wilson and the Australian, it's hypocritical for supporters of section 18C to also support Charlie Hebdo's right to publish satirical cartoons.

But the RDA doesn't say anything about religious discrimination, so what Wilson is really concerned about is that he believes 18C prevents the kind of racial stereotyping of certain ethnic groups that has featured in Charlie Hebdo. The Australian reports that Wilson's view is backed by "media law experts" including Simon Breheny of the Institute of Public Affairs (Wilson's former employer) and Justin Quill, "a media lawyer used by the Australian." But despite the views of Wilson and the IPA, the RDA does currently allow offensive material to be published if the purpose of doing so is genuinely in the public interest, which is to be determined by a court.

The current debate about section 18C was sparked by the Federal Court's 2011 ruling against Andrew Bolt. Since that ruling, Bolt has repeatedly claimed that the court had "banned" him from writing about the issue of fair-skinned Aboriginal people receiving scholarships available only to Indigenous people. But Judge Mordy Bromberg had explicitly held that it was not the issue itself that meant that Bolt's articles contravened the RDA. It was the fact that Bolt's articles "contained errors of fact, distortions of the truth and inflammatory and provocative language", which meant that the articles did not fall under the exemptions in section 18D.

Last week, Jeff Sparrow argued that "we can defend Charlie Hebdo without endorsing" its racialised stereotypes. Michael Brull has a piece in New Matilda today pointing out the hypocrisy among opponents of 18C, who appear to be arguing for the right to offend others on racial grounds and incite racial tension while being quick to shut down any expression that they perceive is harmful to their own interests. It's difficult to imagine why 18C's opponents want to be able to offend on racial grounds against the public interest, though sociological concepts like "white privilege" may explain a fair bit.

Russell Marks
Politicoz Editor

HUMAN RIGHTS DAY - 10 DECEMBER 2014 - JOIN THE CAMPAIGN: Human Rights 365

Human rights 365

On 10 December every year, Human Rights Day commemorates the date on which the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaiming its principles as the “common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.”

This year’s slogan, Human Rights 365, encompasses the idea that every day is Human Rights Day. It celebrates the fundamental proposition in the Universal Declaration that each one of us, everywhere, at all times is entitled to the full range of human rights, that human rights belong equally to each of us and bind us together as a global community with the same ideals and values.

In 2014 the message from Human Rights 365 is unequivocal: the UN Human Rights Office stands by its mandate and stands with the millions of men and women globally, who risk their all for human rights. 

Make your voice heard now via our campaign on Vine: explain why Human Rights matter 365.

It is as important now, as it has been at any time in recent years to declare your membership of and support for the international human rights community. 

On any scale, 2014 will be remembered as a year of daunting human rights challenges. In places where only recently there had been progress in achieving human rights, there has now been retreat. Nonetheless, there have been, significant, ongoing, global advances in achieving our human rights.

Support for the Declaration continues to grow: this year the Convention against Torture reached its 30th year, the Convention on the Rights of the Child is 25. In 2015, the very first of the international agreements giving effect to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination marks its half century. 

As a global community we all share a day when those milestones can be acknowledged and we can take stock of the challenges ahead: Human Rights Day on 10 December. It offers all of us the opportunity to declare our commitment to the principles and standards developed over the more than six decades since the the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted.

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