Penalising Anti-Semitism in Poland: Creating “Free Speech Martyrs”?
On a November night in 2015, an effigy of a Jew was burnt in the main market square in Wrocław, Poland, as part of a protest against accepting refugees into...
Australia’s Bid for the UN Human Rights Council and the Domestic Politics of Race
Australia has identified five priorities to support its candidacy for a seat on the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. They are ‘gender equality, good governance, freedom of expression, the rights...
Freedom of Speech or Enabling a Right to Insult? The Australian Debate over Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975
With a rise in the Neo-Right worldwide, we see the fear of the foreigner and the blaming of refugees and welfare recipients for ills that often flow from structural inequality...
The ebbing of minority rights in Southeast Europe – the identity crisis of Montenegrin and Croatian minorities in Kosovo
The post-conflict southeastern part of Europe demands a more vigorous respect for minority rights, in order to preserve the fragile peace and guard against the horrors of the recent wars...
New Zealand Supreme Court Recognises Fiduciary Duties To Enforce Collective Indigenous Rights
Judgments were delivered by the New Zealand Supreme Court on 28 February 2017 in Wakatu v Attorney-General. The High Court and Court of Appeal decisions had relied on the notion...
Confronting Ongoing Racial Discrimination in Schools Admissions Policies in South Africa
I am now in my final month of working for the Legal Resources Centre and Rhodes University as the Oxford Human Rights Hub Travelling Fellow for 2016. This fellowship has...
Wotton v Queensland: A Milestone for Police Accountability in Australia
The Federal Court of Australia recently delivered a milestone judgment for police accountability in Wotton v Queensland (No 5). Wotton is the latest chapter in the ongoing struggle between the...
Ahmed v United Kingdom: European Court of Human Rights Still Skirting Around Jury Bias
The European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR”) recently handed down its long-awaited admissibility decision in Ahmed v United Kingdom. It unanimously declared that the defendant’s claim, that at least one...
European Court of Human Rights to Consider Right to Education
James Rooney is one of the Oxford Human Rights Hub/Rhodes University Travelling Fellows. The Fellowship is a partnership between the Oxford Human Rights Hub, Rhodes University in South Africa, and...
Canada to Hold National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
On August 3, 2016, the government of Canada announced a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (the “Inquiry”). The Commission’s mandate is “to examine and report...
The Exclusion of Romani Communities from Non-Emergency Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Programs
One of the most pressing issues regarding Europe’s most marginalised ethnic minority remains their restricted access to drug addiction treatment options due to lack of documentation, racism, and recent budget...
The Chakrabarti Report: Through a Human Rights Lens
The week before last, the Labour Party published the report of an inquiry prompted by allegations of antisemitism within the Party. The appointment of Shami Chakrabarti, one of the country’s...