Today we are celebrating a significant win for human rights – the Queensland Human Rights Act passed through parliament.

This means that 23 vital human rights including freedom of association and freedom of expression, the right to education and the right to humane treatment in detention, will be better protected in Queensland law.

The Queensland Human Rights Act will have practical and enormous educational impact in Queensland. It will help to ensure that values like fairness, equality, respect and compassion – are reflected in government policies and services.  It will also require government to properly consider and comply with human rights and it will give people and communities power to hold government to account.   Queensland is now the third Australian jurisdiction with a Human Rights Act or Charter. Let’s hope that we will have a federal Human Rights Act soon.

Today the Australian reported on visit by Stanislaw Michalkiewicz to Australia in an article titled “Anti-Jewish jock’s tour sparks fury” (attached).

Stanislaw Michalkiewicz is an ultra-conservative shock jock working for a Catholic radio “Radio Maria” known for his anti-Jewish commentary. Recently he is facing legal action for equating 13 years old victim of a rape by Catholic priest with a prostitute.

I congratulate Mr Aleksander Gancarz OAM, President of the Australian Institute of Polish Affairs of taking a principal stand against the visit and writing to Polish community groups to denounce Michalkiewicz.

We do not need bigots visiting Australia to undermine good name the Poles have earned here and the good relations between Polish and Jewish communities in Australia.

Article

Ms. Agnes Callamard (France), the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, leading an independent human rights inquiry into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi delivered her early findings. Her probe concluded that:

• Evidence points to prima facie case of brutal, premeditated killing
• Planned and perpetrated by officials from Saudi Arabia
• Expert denounces “immunity for impunity”
• Final report will be delivered to Human Rights Council in June
• An important role for the UN and the international community

“Evidence collected during my mission to Turkey shows prime facie case that Mr. Khashoggi was the victim of a brutal and premeditated killing, planned and perpetrated by officials of the State of Saudi Arabia,” said Agnes Callamard, at the end of a visit to Turkey.

The Special Rapporteur said the killing of Mr. Khashoggi was part of a well evidenced pattern of killings globally of journalists, other human rights defenders, activists and opponents of various regimes. “Fleeing abroad in search of safety has become less and less a reliable form of protection,” the Special Rapporteur said. “The international community must take a strong and collective stand against these practices,” she warned.

Callamard’s final report, to be presented to the Human Rights Council in June, will make a range of recommendations, including for the purpose of formal criminal accountability, and their bases in international law. “The human rights inquiry I have committed to undertake is a necessary step, among a number of others, towards crucial truth telling and formal accountability.”

The mission, from 28 January to 3 February, was the Special Rapporteur’s first official visit to the country.

A report published today indicates that  over 90% of published articles reporting on transplant research from China fail to report on where the organs came from, despite international prohibition against the use of prisoner organs.  The article is freely available here:
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/2/e024473

There is a companion discussion piece in the online academic newspaper the conversation:
https://theconversation.com/whose-hearts-livers-and-lungs-are-transplanted-in-china-origins-must-be-clear-in-human-organ-research-108077

The Guardian is running a front page story here:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/feb/06/call-for-retraction-of-400-scientific-papers-amid-fears-organs-came-from-chinese-prisoners