Mission & Justice

Sonia Harford; 18/5/08

Not long ago, the women in Victorian prisons were there largely because of drug or property-related crimes. But that picture is slowly changing, with a rising number of women being convicted for assault and other violent crimes. Police statistics show that the rate of women arrested for crimes against the person — including homicide, rape, sexual assault, robbery and assault — increased from 2005 to 2007. However, according to Australian Institute of Criminology figures covering Victoria, Queensland and South Australia, overall female offending rates increased only for assault between 1995 and 2006. The rate rose 40% for women, compared with 15% for male offenders.

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Rob Hulls; 16/5/08

Many years ago, I was working with the Aboriginal Legal Service in Mount Isa and I sat in on a coronial inquest where the only witness to a single car collision was an old Aboriginal fellow. This man was called to give evidence as to what he saw in relation to this accident. He got into the witness box, looked around, and was so intimidated by the court surroundings that he said: “I will plead guilty.” That is what the justice system meant to him - a place where you plead guilty. This sad story reflects how many Aboriginal people are alienated by the traditional justice system. It also is indicative of why a culturally appropriate legal system is needed if we are to break the cycle of over-representation of indigenous offenders in our nation’s jails.

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Chris Merritt; 6/5/08

Victoria’s plan to establish a separate county court to deal with Aborigines accused of serious crime raises the prospect of an apartheid-style legal system. Leading criminal lawyer Peter Faris QC, a former chairman of the National Crime Authority, said: “I saw this and felt sick.”  If the plan went ahead, it would open the door to “separate but equal” justice for Aborigines, the catchcry of apartheid South Africa, Mr Faris said. The plan, which will be outlined in today’s Victorian budget, will establish the nation’s first racially based court to deal with serious criminal offences.

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16/4/08

NSW Premier Morris Iemma and victims groups are leading the call for barristers to adopt new rules to prevent aggressive questioning of victims in sexual assault trials. The NSW government wants the NSW Bar Association to toughen up its regulations and to discipline barristers who directly or incidentally harass or embarrass victims in the witness box. Current rules do not specifically address the issue of cross-examination of victims in such trials and NSW Attorney-General John Hatzistergos said that while the association had been open to some of the changes, there was some opposition.

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Michael Pelly; 11/4/08

Victroian lawyers have been urged to “get wise” to the potential of human rights arguments in court as the state Government prepares to table the first review of its charter of rights. Human Rights Law Resource Centre director Phil Lynch told a Victorian Bar Association forum on Wednesday night that rights arguments had been raised in up to half of all superior court cases in Britain. He also pointed to Victorian cases that showed the judiciary was ready to consider charter provisions even when lawyers did not raise them in argument.

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John Van Tiggelen; 14/3/08

Elders from a far north Queensland community are calling for the removal of children in the face of a comprehensive breakdown of social standards. Several members of Aurukun’s community justice group, led by Martha Koowarta, widow of a local land rights hero, are urging outsiders to take children from age nine for their safety and education. Justice, education and child safety standards in Aurukun, Cape York, have collapsed. Last financial year, 763 defendants — including repeat offenders — from the township of 1000, faced court.

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1/3/08

Prosecutions in Asia, includes Cambodia, Philipines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal.
- Public prosecuting in Cambodia; Dr Lao Mong Hay, Senior Researcher; Sarada Taing, Assistant Researcher & Anne-Laure Proisy, Intern, Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong
- Prosecution in the Philippines; Danilo Reyes, Programme Assistant, Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong
- The Kafkan metamorphosis of Sri Lanka’s Attorney General; Basil Fernando, Executive Director, Asian Human Rights Commission & Asian Legal Resource Centre, Hong Kong
- The disposable prosecutors of Bangladesh; Md. Ashrafuzzaman, Programme Assistant, Asian Legal Resource Centre, Hong Kong
- Criminal justice in Nepal; Kamal Pathak, Focal Person, Asian Human Rights Commission, Kathmandu, Nepal
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