Human Rights Overboard
Linda Briskman & Susie Latham & Chris Goddard
Winner of the Literature Non-Fiction Award of The Australian Human Rights Commission’s annual Human Rights Medals and Awards
'Human Rights Overboard is an important and moving book which deserves to be widely read and discussed.'
John Rutherford (Law Institute of Victoria)'This book reveals and confirms, in detail, all the fears you may have held about immigration detention in Australia over the past 15 years.'
Jeremy Adair (Civil Liberty)'The verdict, frankly, is nothing short of horrific. This book reveals something systematically rotten. Not isolated incidents, but a repressive structure … The information gathered is so compelling, so relentless, and derived from so many diverse accounts in different parts of Australia, that accusations of bias must be crushed under its weight.'
Waleed Aly (Australian Literary Review)In 2005, in the wake of the Cornelia Rau scandal, a citizen’s inquiry was established to bear witness to events in Australia’s immigration-detention facilities. Until then, the federal government had refused to conduct a broad-ranging investigation into immigration detention, and the operations within detention centres had been largely shrouded in official secrecy.
The People’s Inquiry into Detention (as it came to be called) heard heartbreaking evidence about asylum-seekers’ journeys to Australia, their refugee determination process, and their life in and after detention. In total, around 200 people testified to the inquiry, and a similar number of written submissions were received.
Human Rights Overboard draws together, for the first time, the oral testimony and written submissions from the inquiry in a powerful and vital book that stands as an indictment of Australia’s refugee policy.
Clearly and comprehensively presented, the book is a haunting journey guided by voices from every side of the fence: former and current immigration detainees, refugee advocates, lawyers, doctors, psychiatrists, and former detention and immigration staff. Taken together, their stories record a humanitarian disaster that sounds a warning to current and future policy makers, both here and overseas. With a foreword by prominent humanitarian lawyer Julian Burnside, Human Rights Overboard is an essential book that will resonate for years to come.
Linda Briskman
Professor Linda Briskman is the Dr Haruhisa Handa chair of human rights education at Curtin University. She has received the award to deliver the Eileen Younghusband lecture in South Africa in July 2008, for her work on the People’s Inquiry into Detention. She is the author of two other books, Social Work with Indigenous Communities and The Black Grapevine.
Susie Latham
Susie Latham is an adjunct research associate at the Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University, a registered migration agent and a social worker. Susie has a professional background in engaging general practitioners in a number of health and mental health projects and has volunteered at Melbourne’s Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre for over five years. She has also volunteered as an English tutor to refugees and spent more than eight years in various workplaces as a union representative.
Chris Goddard
Professor Chris Goddard is the director of Child Abuse Prevention Research Australia, Monash University. Recognition of Chris Goddard’s accomplishments include a 2005 nomination for the UN Human Rights Award for journalism. He is the author of two other books, The Truth Is Longer Than a Lie and In The Firing Line.
Website: http://www.capra.monash.org
Julian Burnside
Julian Burnside, QC, is an Australian barrister who specialises in commercial litigation and is also deeply involved in human rights work, in particular in relation to refugees. He is a former president of Liberty Victoria, and is also passionately involved in the arts: he is the chair of Melbourne arts venue fortyfivedownstairs, and is chair of the Mietta Foundation. He has published a children's book, Matilda and the Dragon, as well as Wordwatching, a collection of essays on the uses and abuses of the English language, and Watching Brief: reflections on human rights, law, and justice. He is also the editor of From Nothing to Zero, a compilation of letters written by asylum-seekers held in Australia's detention camps.
Website: http://www.julianburnside.com.au
Buy from Readings
Extent: 448pp
Size: 234mm x 153mm
ISBN (13): 9781921372407
RRP: $35.00
Pub date: September 2008
Download: Download the acceptance speech given by Susie Latham at the Australian Human Rights Commission’s annual Human Rights Medals and Awards ceremony.
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