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wrong human for human rights...

 

wrong man...

Four Australians with better human rights credentials than Philip Ruddock


By Greg Barns

The choice of Philip Ruddock to represent Australia internationally on human rights issues makes as much sense as appointing a cigarette company CEO to champion health, writes Greg Barns.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was rightly aghast at his predecessor Tony Abbott's offer of a knighthood for Prince Philip early last year.

It was a "captain's pick" Mr Abbott said. Is the appointment of retiring Liberal MP Philip Ruddock as Special Envoy for Human Rights Mr Turnbull's own captain's pick? If it is then it is as seriously misguided as Mr Abbott's.

Philip Ruddock and human rights are not generally used in the same sentence these days except in the context of searing criticism about his role as immigration minister in the creation and expansion of cruel immigration detention centres in places like Woomera and Baxter in South Australia and Nauru during the early 2000s.

Under Mr Ruddock the mental and physical harm endured by asylum seekers was horrendous. Mr Ruddock's hard line detention policies attracted the ire of international NGO Human Rights Watch and it wrote to Mr Ruddock on January 25, 2002 indicating it was "deeply concerned about reports that Australia is detaining child asylum seekers in poor conditions for long periods of time".

Justice Paul Finn, in a lengthy landmark 2005 Federal Court judgment, described in detail the suffering of two men at the Baxter detention centre and the grossly inadequate healthcare arrangements for asylum seekers.

The former chief justice of India, Justice Bhagwati, after a visit to Australia in 2002 as Regional Advisor for Asia and the Pacific of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, concluded "that the human rights situation of persons in immigration detention in Australia is a matter of serious concern".

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-09/barns-philip-ruddocks-human-rights-credentials/7151982

 

a badge of ego...

It’s rumoured Howard long held a grudge against Ruddock, but by 1996, in large part to placate the left of his party, Howard appointed Ruddock Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Minister for Immigration.

Both portfolios were at the bottom of the rung in terms of prestige and hierarchy, indeed neither were even included in Howard’s first cabinet.

By 1998, however, Howard was beginning to sense some opportunities around immigration. He moved the portfolio into his second cabinet.

By March 2000, Amnesty International formally requested that Ruddock, a member of the international justice group, no longer wear his Amnesty pin while performing ministerial duties, given his government’s policies around mandatory detention (introduced by Labor).

Ruddock, of course, refused to take it off, and still to this day dons it when he can, if not to display his human rights credentials, at least to underscore the impressive size of his fragile ministerial ego.

https://newmatilda.com/2016/02/08/personal-reflections-of-philip-ruddock-minister-baby-kisser-all-round-human-rights-abuser/

sins of commission ...

Of all the sins committed by the federal member for Berowra, Darth Ruddock, surely his greatest but most dubious accomplishment was to successfully trash the once iconic human rights brand “Amnesty”.

If Foreign Minister Julie Bishop genuinely believes Darth’s appointment as Australia’s Special Envoy for Human Rights is the right call, then surely she would have to be ecstatic at the news that Hannibal Lector has also announced his retirement & plans to go into the restaurant business.