Minimum age for marriage urged
Fatima Sidiya; 26/3/10 A sheikh has urged the government to implement a minimum age for marriage. Shiekh Abdul Muhsin Al-Obaikan wants to avoid cases of very young girls getting married to men many years their senior. The sheikh has also pledged his support for the “No to Minor Marriages” campaign run by Arab News’ sister […] read more…
In a country where males rule supreme, woman struggle to have voices heard
Amanda Hodge; 29/3/10 Seema Das is a forthright, educated mother of one daughter in India, although if fate had been allowed to follow its course she would have two girls. Ten years ago, she terminated her second pregnancy after an ultrasound test confirmed the fears of her husband and his family. Seema (not her real […] read more…
Police insensitivity
24/3/10; http://arabnews.com/opinion/letters/article33881.ece A 14-year-old Muslim girl was arrested at her home by Ghatkopar police, Mumbai, in December last year, in connection with a supposed violation of the Child Marriage Prohibition Act as her relatives complained to the police that she was underage and should not be married off. Instead of taking suitable action against her […] read more…
Top Yemeni religious leaders oppose ban on child marriages
22/10/03 Some of Yemen’s most influential Islamic leaders, including one the US says mentored Osama Bin Laden, have declared supporters of a ban on child brides to be apostates. The religious decree, issued Sunday, deeply imperils efforts to salvage legislation that would make it illegal for those under the age of 17 to marry. The […] read more…
Stolen Generations compo payout upheld by appeal court
Gavin Lower & Matthew Franklin; 23/3/10 (2 Items) The only successful compensation case brought by a member of the Stolen Generations has been upheld by South Australia’s highest court, sparking renewed calls for schemes to compensate Aboriginal people taken from their families as children. It is unclear whether the South Australian government will appeal the […] read more…
Faith not enough for kids’ health
10/3/10 US judge who sentenced a couple to prison for the death of their son says members of their church must stop relying on faith healing when their children’s lives are at stake. “Too many children have died unnecessarily – a graveyard full,” judge Steven Maurer said yesterday. “This has to stop.” Judge Maurer spoke […] read more…
Muslim kids believe they are sterotyped in Australia
Bernard Lane & Lanai Vasek; 27/2/10 Cronulla, bogan, Howard, pussies, beer, and cricket spring to mind when many Muslim school students are prompted with the word Australian. But non-Muslim students in Australia are even less likely to have positive things to say when asked their reaction to the word Muslim, which to many spells terror […] read more…
Outback school that bucked the trend
Natasha Robinson; 25/2/10 Many of its students have had parents in and out of jail, brothers or sisters who were petrol sniffers, or live in homes where English is rarely spoken. But Ntaria School is the unlikely success story of remote Aboriginal Australia, bucking the trend of mass educational failure with its above-average rankings on […] read more…
UK apologises for suffering of its abused child migrants
Angus Hohenboken; 25/2/10 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologised last night for Britain’s role in sending thousands of children to Australia to face psychological and physical abuse and forced labour. An estimated 150,000 youngsters, aged as young as three, were sent to Commonwealth countries under the Child Migrants Program in an attempt to give them […] read more…
Baptists’ ‘orphans’ all have families
Frank Bajak; 22/2/10 The 33 so-called orphans who a US Baptist group tried to take from Haiti in a do-it-yourself rescue mission following a devastating earthquake all have living relatives. In a visit to the rubble-riddled Citron slum where 13 of the children lived, parents who gave their children away confirmed that each one of […] read more…
End ban on customary law in sentencing, urges law council
Chris Merritt, 18/2/10 The Law Council of Australia has committed itself to overturning the federal ban that prevents judges taking account of Aboriginal customary law. The Law Council’s new policy on indigenous Australians describes customary law as “sophisticated and complex”. But the Law Council has also recognised that some aspects of customary law — such […] read more…
Aboriginal men ‘portrayed as molesters’, Senate told
Lex Hall ; 16/2/10 An Aboriginal legal aid group has slammed anti-pornography measures in remote communities, telling a Senate inquiry that provisions of the NT intervention portray indigenous men as pedophiles. Vernon Patullo of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency said there had been no increase in the number of people in communities being prosecuted […] read more…
Cloud on missionaries’ lawyer
15/2/10 An investigation into whether a legal adviser to the 10 US missionaries accused of abducting Haitian children is wanted for sex trafficking may not affect the case of the missionaries, a Haitian judge says. The magistrate overseeing the missionaries’ trial, Bernard Saint-Vil, said yesterday the probe into Jorge Puello, the Dominican legal adviser to […] read more…
Voices from the mother country
Xinran talks to Linda Morris; 13/2/10; (2 Items) Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love is published by Chatto & Windus. It is only in the final chapter of Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother that its author, Xinran, confesses the secret of her “unforgotten” daughter and her intense personal motivation […] read more…
At-risk kids spark stoush over welfare and parenting
Matthew Denholm; 11/2/10, A constitutional stoush has been sparked by a Family Court ruling that it can compel state welfare agencies to take a role in the parenting of at-risk children. Judge Robert Benjamin ruled that he had the power to impose a parental responsibility order on a state agency when there were “no other […] read more…
Children most at risk in a disaster zone
Daniel Toole; 10/2/10 (2 items) Children suffer the most in humanitarian catastrophes such as the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Not only are children more likely to be killed or injured, if they survive they often have the least access to critical lifesaving aid such as food, clean water and medication. More insidiously children are also […] read more…
Powered by WordPress | Fluxipress Theme