November 2009
1 post
Providing refuge - a humanitarian approach
The public debate surrounding the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers aboard Oceanic Viking and the tragic rescue operation unfolding near Cocos Islands where one asylum seeker has already died has re-exposed Australia’s low humanitarian threshold.
It’s simply illogical that as a community we put such a high expectation on our government to protect and support people displaced by crises at home –...
October 2009
5 posts
US starts race to the lowest common denominator on...
On Wednesday I watched as the US’s Disarmament Ambassador announced to the UN First Committee that the US would vote in favour of negotiating an Arms Trade Treaty by 2012.
On face value, this seems like an amazingly positive turnaround – and particularly fitting coming only days after Obama won his hotly debated Nobel peace prize for work in disarmament and UN diplomacy. The Arms Trade Treaty was...
Co-authors should stick to their guns on the Arms...
We know that the United States is pushing for the ATT resolution to dictate that treaty negotiations happen by absolute consensus. This would give veto rights to any state that wants to water down the treaty text. That means states could easily remove from the text any tough provisions to restrict irresponsible arms transfers.
Ok, let’s pause for a minute and consider the purpose of an Arms Trade...
Diplomacy, power and marginalised voices
I’ve spent the last three days sitting inside the UN headquarters watching the dynamics of First Committee unfold. First Committee is one of the six main committees of the General Assembly that meets every October to discuss disarmament. This year discussions of the Arms Trade Treaty are somewhat overshadowed by the big ticket item: nuclear weapons disarmament and non-proliferation. But...