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Migrant Rights? Not our problem …
Despite being urged to do so, Australia will not ratify the Migrant Workers Convention: one of the major human rights treaties of the world. The Australian Human Rights Commission and countries taking part in a review of Australia’s human rights performance under the UN universal periodic review, urged Australia to consider ratifying the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (Migrant Workers Convention). Australia will not even consider this recommendation. The Australian government response stated that “it views the existing protections for migrant workers as adequate” and that Australia “does not intend to become a party to ICRMW”. Australia has many migrant workers simply…
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The Crisis of Human Rights: Discrimination Against Non-Citizens
The basic idea at the heart of human rights is that all human beings are equal: equal in rights – equal in human dignity. This idea is universally accepted and believed. At the same time another idea – the idea that we are separately citizens of different countries is also a feature of the modern world – and the way it is practised has led to enormous discrimination and violation of human rights. In reality people, as a matter of law, have different fundamental rights even though we believe that all human beings are equal. In a recent paper titled “Human Rights in the Age of Migration: An Empirical Analysis of Human…
