Australia vs the UN on Human Rights
You might remember about midway through last year when then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Australians were “sick of being lectured to by the United Nations” about how Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers breached an international anti-torture convention.
As was rightly pointed out at the time, if you’re sick of being lectured about how much you’re torturing innocent people, you’re probably torturing innocent people too much. Australia has again been condemned over its “abusive” treatment of asylum seekers and “overly broad” counter-terrorism laws, but Australia’s reaction has been to do precisely nothing about it.
Why does Australia seem so indifferent to international condemnation? The Daily spoke to Dr Amy Maguire, Senior Lecturer in International Law at the University of Newcastle.
Produced by Kate White
