Restitution of Sacred Artefacts and the Right to Religio-Cultural Identity: A Human Rights Case for an Exception-Based Regime
In March 2026, Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum, returned (also here) a 16th century bronze icon of Saint Thirumankai Alvar to the Indian Government. The museum had acquired the idol in...
Is Lack of Climate Change Mitigation measures a Human Right Violation?
A Disappearing Homeland The Torres Strait Islands are slowly disappearing owing to rising sea levels and costal erosion. Fortunately, however, in a landmark decision, the United Nations Human Rights Committee...
The Ahmadiyya in Pakistan: Religious Persecution, Human Rights, and Islam
The Ahmadiyya are a religious minority who suffer persecution in Pakistan and many other Muslim-majority countries. In 2023, for example, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported that at least...
Australia inches closer to a national Human Rights Act
Australia is the only western liberal democracy without some form of federal charter of human rights. That may soon change, with a recent parliamentary inquiry recommending a federal Human Rights...
The Rebellious Act of Consuming Meat in India: Non-vegetarianism and Taboo
Food-delivery company Zomato recently came up with an “all-vegetarian fleet policy” wherein vegetarian food would be delivered by a different set of delivery drivers wearing green to ensure food segregation....
Tide Turning on Australia’s Inadequate Climate Policy? A Challenge from First Nations Peoples in the Torres Strait
The low-lying islands of Zendath Kes (Torres Strait) are the frontlines of the climate crisis. Without action, climate change will soon make these islands uninhabitable, rendering First Nations Guda Maluyligal...
Religious Discrimination, Headscarves and ‘exclusive neutrality’: backsliding by the CJEU
In OP v Commune d’Ans the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) returned to religious discrimination and headscarves, this time in the public sector workplace. Although the CJEU...
Museums and Missiles: Russia’s Attack on Ukrainian Heritage Highlights the Need to Protect Cultural Rights
Since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, they have bombed, defaced, and looted sites of cultural significance to the Ukrainian people. UNESCO recently confirmed that 295 sites have been...
Silencing the Indigenous Voice: How Australians Have Failed Their Own People Part II
The first part of this blog series addressed the background to the referendum and the Constitution of Australia, including how it derives from racially discriminatory beliefs which would later be...
Silencing the Indigenous Voice: How Australians Have Failed Their Own People Part I
Last week’s failed referendum affirms the deep-seated racial prejudice embedded in Australia’s public institutions, and demonstrates how this marginalisation continues to be perpetrated by the Australian populace more broadly. Following...
India’s Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill: Undermining Forest Dwellers’ Rights
On 30 March 2023, the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 was introduced in the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of Parliament, and later referred to a Joint Committee of Parliament...
Public Purpose or Private Interest? The Supreme Court of India’s Scrutiny of Land Acquisition for a University Project in Tribal Areas
The Supreme Court of India recently delivered a landmark judgment in Anil Agarwal Foundation Etc v State of Orissa & Ors, quashing the land acquisition proceedings initiated by the State...
