Tag Archives: Australia

2015: When Global Governments Trampled Human Rights in Name of National Security

Rights ‘are being treated with utter contempt by many governments around the world’

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 2-24-2016

Protesters in London take part in a November 2015 action to protest a visit by Egypt's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. (Photo: Alisdare Hickson/flickr/cc)

Protesters in London take part in a November 2015 action to protest a visit by Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. (Photo: Alisdare Hickson/flickr/cc)

Governments worldwide in 2015 capitalized on supposed national security threats to trample over human rights.

That’s Amnesty International’s assessment of global human rights in its latest report.

“Your rights are in jeopardy: they are being treated with utter contempt by many governments around the world,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International. Continue reading

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Mining Giant Credits Activists with Possibly Saving Great Barrier Reef

Indian mining giant Adani lashes out at environmentalists who sought to block giant coal mine—and succeeded

By Lauren McCauley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 8-11-2015.

With two major financial backers withdrawing support, and a federal court revoking its license, Adani's proposed Carmichael mine appears to be sunk. (Photo: Richard Ling/cc/flickr)

With two major financial backers withdrawing support, and a federal court revoking its license, Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine appears to be sunk. (Photo: Richard Ling/cc/flickr)

Fierce environmental activism is being blamed—and credited—with spurring the potential demise of Australia’s controversial Carmichael coal mine project.

Indian mining giant Adani on Tuesday lashed out at activists, accusing them of causing delays that prompted financial backers to withdraw their support for the vast Queensland mine and port expansion along the Great Barrier Reef (GBR).

The project, which environmentalists have long warned would irreparably harm the GBR, has faced significant hurdles, the latest being the announcement by the London-based Standard Chartered bank on Monday that it was withdrawing from its advisory role on the project. Continue reading

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A Sharp Contrast

Over the last couple months, there’s been a worrisome trend happening in the German city of Dresden. Every Monday night for the last nine weeks, a group named PEGIDA, or Patriotic Europeans Against Islamization of the West, has held a rally and a march through Dresden.

The rallies started in October in response to clashes between Kurds and Sunni Muslims over the West’s intervention in Syria. What started as a fairly small protest rally of 200 people the first week has grown over time. On Monday, 15,000 people marched through the streets carrying banners bearing slogans such as “Zero tolerance towards criminal asylum seekers”, “Protect our homeland” and “Stop the Islamization”.

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