Whenua Fenua Enua Vanua

Vanuatu: Ralph Regenvanu on why he was sacked

2012-01-19T13:57:00.000+11:00

"Media statement from MP Ralph Regenvanu in response to his termination as a Minister on Monday 16th January 2012"

I acknowledge that the Prime Minister has the Constitutional right to appoint and dismiss any Minister.

I am disappointed, however, that my termination was by way of a letter delivered to my office and that the Prime Minister did not have the courtesy to meet me in person to tell me that I was being terminated and the reasons for my termination. Considering my long-time support for him over the entire life of this legislature, I feel this failure to meet me in person to terminate me is disrespectful and not appropriate conduct on his part.

Since the Prime Minister never spoke to me, the only reason that I have been given for my termination is in the letter, which says:
“Your continued actions and support for issues that have been contradictory to the collective policy decisions of the Council of Ministers and your choice not to stand by these collective decisions has caused serious concern and raised serious questions of loyalty within the Council and members of the governing coalition.”

Less than ten MP’s in the current Parliament and only two Ministers in the current Government have stood by the the Hon. Sato Kilman since the 2008 elections until now, and I am one of them. Even several members of his own party have deserted him over the term. On the issue of my “loyalty”, then, I believe there is no “serious question”.

As to my “actions and support for issues that have been contradictory to the collective policy decisions of the Council of Ministers”, the most obvious one is my vote against the bill to join the World Trade Organisation, both in the Council of Ministers and in Parliament. It seems apparent to most observers that this is the reason for my termination, as I believe I am the first Minister in Vanuatu’s history to vote against a Government bill.

I also did not support the recent Council of Ministers decision to appoint Mme Titam Ghoiset as Roving Ambassador to Russia with a 15% commission on any money she obtains for Vanuatu, so this may be another of my transgressions.

I have also spoken publicly, in political awareness campaigns, about my opposition to the use of Government funds to increase the salaries and benefits of politicians. In November 2010 I was the only MP to vote against the Bill for the Parliament Members’ Expenses and Allowances (Amendment) Act, which increased MP's annual salaries by two million vatu by removing this amount from the MP allocation and transferring it into MP salaries. I have also publicly stated my opposition to the recent decision (in November last year) by the Parliamentary Management Board (of which the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Speaker of Parliament are members) to provide new cars at Government expense to four MP’s: the First and Second Deputy Speakers, the Leader of Government Business and the Government Whip; and to create a new position of 2nd Second Political Advisor to the Speaker, at a time when many teachers and nurses are still waiting to receive outstanding salaries owed to them. This may be another of my transgressions.

Also, in December last year, I wrote to the Prime Minister asking that Vanuatu not enter into any further relations with Indonesia given the massive human rights violations being committed by the Indonesian army in West Papua in that same month: a few days after receiving my letter the Prime Minister traveled to Indonesia to sign a Development Cooperation Agreement with that country which purports to prevent the Vanuatu Government from talking about the issue of West Papuan independence. The signing of this Agreement has not been endorsed by the Council of Ministers. Perhaps my opposition to establishing further relations with Indonesia is another reason for my dismissal.

Despite my many differences with the policy decisions of the Prime Minister, I have remained faithful to his Government and have been able to implement many changes in the three Ministries I have held over the past year.

In the Ministry of Ni-Vanuatu Business, I was able to remove the long-standing power of the Minister to politically appoint the Registrar of Cooperatives and have this position appointed on merit instead. I was also able to have a policy restricting the location and manner in which foreigners could establish retail and wholesale shops in Vanuatu passed by the Council of Ministers: unfortunately I was reshuffled out of the Ministry before the policy could be implemented and subsequent Ministers and the Government in general have failed to implement this policy.

In the Ministry of Lands I put a temporary hold on the registration of all land transactions and began the process of amending national land laws and dealing with corrupt practices in the Ministry. I was also able to start the process of acquiring Freswota Field and Nelson Mandela Park for the use of the public of Port Vila. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister reshuffled me out of this Ministry after only three weeks.

In the Ministry of Justice I amended the Public Solicitor Act for the first time in 30 years to give the office more power and also increased the budget of the office so that now their lawyers get paid the same salary as lawyers in the Attorney General's Office, so the Public Solicitor can now attract and retain quality lawyers to serve needy people. I was also able to amend the Law Commission Act for the first time in over 30 years to provide a role for chiefs, churches, women and youth in screening all bills before they came before Parliament. I also put a hold on any new Land Tribunal cases and have begun the process of drafting a new law to return jurisdiction over land disputes to chiefs at the community or “nakamal” level. And next week there will be a National Summit to review the whole law, justice and community services sector to identify the many blockages and constraints hindering the effective provision of justice and community services to the people of Vanuatu and new strategies and policies for overcoming these constraints.

Given this background to my termination, I feel I can no longer remain a member of the Alliance political grouping led by the Prime Minister, of which I am a founding member. I will therefore be resigning from the Alliance, and also from my position as the President of the Alliance Blong Port Vila.

I will now continue to practice the policy I contested the last election with: “To provide a role model for good leadership as an MP and a national leader”, and I will focus on preparing the candidates of my party, the “Graon mo Jastis Pati”, to contest the national elections in November. I believe that the eyes of the people of Vanuatu are open to what is happening in the politics of the country and I hope that this awareness will be reflected in the election results.

Palm Island Activist Lex Wotton given standing ovation

2011-12-02T07:47:00.001+11:00

Academics and activists applaud former prisoner Lex Wotton at the First Nations Conference at Townsville in north Queensland.

Vanuatu Government must walk with its people on WTO decision ‐ PCC

2011-12-01T07:31:00.001+11:00

PRESS RELEASE: For immediate Release Vanuatu Government must walk with its people on WTO decision ‐ PCC

( PCC is the biggest civil society body in the Pacific with a membership of approximately 6.5mill out of the 8.5 million in the Pacific )

The Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) is urging the Government of Vanuatu to reconsider its decision to silence the church body and other ni‐Vanuatu voices trying to fulfill their rightful responsibility as fellow burden‐ sharers in such an important decision.

PCC’s Acting General Secretary, Reverend Francois Pihaatae said, the Government of Vanuatu has repeatedly heard the call of its communities, the traditional chiefs and civil society organisations, including the Church body, to refrain from continuing on its current path towards joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

“In recent months, the call has taken to the streets because the voices of a people would not be heeded,” he said
While recognising the value and necessity of trade regimes and economic development, their very purpose is for the benefit of the human person; on their own, no system is self‐justifying. The concern for the human person, especially the poor and marginalized, is a central concern of our Christian faith. The question, therefore, is whether joining the WTO will enhance the wellbeing and opportunities for the poor or will it deepen poverty and increase inequality.

According to Rev.Francois, the voice of opposition by the churches, NGOs and community groups, including their chiefs, are both genuine and justifiable given that joining the WTO, whilst offering no clear advantages, will have profound risks to peoples’ livelihoods and to their future. “The binding and far‐reaching conditions of joining the WTO accentuate the inextricable link between what the government decides and the wellbeing of all ni‐ Vanuatu.”

“Concerns stem from what ni‐Vanuatu see as a basic lack of meaningful consultation on the implications and benefits of WTO membership, through to outright rejection of current accession conditions. Such a decision can only be made through meaningful, informed and participatory dialogue with the people, which, apparently, was not the case.Clearly, Vanuatu’s accession to the WTO under current provisions does not have the support of a significant part of Vanuatu society.”
“Opposition to the direction the Government is taking has also offered much constructive criticism in pursuit of more favourable participation in global trade. Alternative view points have been offered by members of the ‘Say No to WTO’ campaign comprising various Vanuatu community groups, local CSOs and international NGOs, which have freely invested valuable resources to inform discussions.”

According to Rev. Francois, this expression of public courage and will by the people to accompany their government in negotiations with the WTO is therefore to be celebrated, not stifled.“Limiting the people’s ability to freely organize in a civil manner and to express opposition to the existing WTO accession package is counterproductive to the very foundation upon which the Vanuatu Government seeks to govern, to serve, and indeed to ensure sustainable security.”

“Rather than stifle opposition to the current WTO accession process through restricting civil organisation, the Government is encouraged to respect and embracethe opportunity being extended by the people to heed their views and to profit from their contributions, technical and otherwise.”

“Beyond the technicalities and specifics involved, whether these concern trade rules or the economicsand legalities of issues associated with WTO accession discussions, it is the firm view of the PCC that there is a key message from this experience requiring discernment.” According to Rev. Francois, the Church, traditional leaders, communities, CSOs and individuals have joined in expressing a common desire ‐ that the Government of Vanuatu heedits people and walk with them.

Ends....

For more information please contact the Communications Officer, Losana McGowan, Phone: +679 3311 277, Mobile: +679 9068118

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Report details unacceptable impacts from deep sea mining by Canada’s Nautilus

2011-11-24T20:18:00.001+11:00

MEDIA RELEASE:

Report details unacceptable impacts from deep sea mining by Canada’s Nautilus
November 24, 2011 – Port Morseby, Papua New Guinea/ Ottawa, Canada/ Melbourne, Australia. The Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and MiningWatch Canada and have released a new report called “Out of Our Depth.”. It details serious environmental and social impacts expected as a result of unprecedented mining of the ocean floor in PNG.

Canadian mining company Nautilus Minerals Inc. (Nautilus) plans to extract gold and copper from the floor of the Bismarck Sea in 2012 at its Solwara 1 project. The project will mine active and inactive hydrothermal vents at 1.46 kilometres under the sea. Thousands of these vents over an 11 hectare area will be destroyed. Possibly the origins of life on earth, these high-temperature underwater vents host unique species, most of which have not yet been identified or studied.

The underwater mine site is located close to coastal communities that rely heavily on sea food for diet and income. The project is raising alarm among these directly affected communities, as well as among PNG citizens who question the environmental process that led to the licensing of the project.

Moses Murray, advisor to the “sea bed mining forum” of community organisations from New Ireland Province, East New Britain and Madang, says:

“The PNG Constitution in its preamble provides for sharing of natural resources with future generations. The current trend shown by our political leaders have taken the direction that they are not worried about the future generations anymore. It is “the now” that matters to them. Every mine on land, be they gas, oil, and other natural resources including mining under the ocean is set to be opened. The brain, pen and ink used to draft the preamble of the Constitution was a waste of time.”

Helen Rosenbaum, author of the report, says “Nautilus has prepared a deeply flawed Environmental Impact Statement. For example, the company has insufficiently tested the toxicity of its process on vent species, and has not sufficiently considered toxic effects on organisms in the marine food chain.”

Catherine Coumans of MiningWatch Canada, an editor for the report, notes “once again a Canadian company is set to inflict unusual environmental and social harm in Papua New Guinea in a way that would not be permitted in Canada. Canadian mining company Placer Dome dumped mine waste into the sea for many years and Barrick Gold is currently using a major river system as a mine waste dump. It is tragic that Canadian mining companies are profiting from weak governance in Papua New Guinea.”

For more info:
Moses Murray, elishbru@daltron.com.pg
Jane Kesno, President, Namatanai District Council of Women in New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea, tel. (+675) 71802362, janekesno@gmail.com
Catherine Coumans, MiningWatch Canada, tel. (+1) 613-569-3439, catherine@miningwatch.ca
Helen Rosenbaum, Melbourne, tel. (+61) (0)413 201 793; hrose@vic.chariot.net.au
For a copy of the report see: http://www.deepseaminingoutofourdepth.org

Nautalis testing experimental seabed mining in the Pacific

2011-11-20T08:54:00.001+11:00

In this video community groups in New Ireland and East New Britain express their views about deep sea mining in the Bismarck and the Solomon Sea by Canadian corporation Nautilus. If they are allowed to go ahead there will be an explosion of deep sea mining in the Pacific.

We have very little understanding of the deep sea. We have even less knowledge of the potential impacts of deep sea mining on marine life and local communities who depend on the sea for their lives and livelihoods.

Another case of greed over the environment and communities rights ... it needs to be stopped!

Waziyatawin Speaks to Occupy Oakland

2011-11-18T06:53:00.000+11:00

There is NO Separation between colonial Expansion the ongoing subjugation of Indigenous life, and the Capitalist exploitation of Life for economic gain. Further these objectives have always been pursued with extreme brutality and a callous disregard for any life that gets in the way.
If you feel expendable its because to the current power structure you are, all life is.
In the conquest of the Americas Capitalism is inseparable from colonialism and imperialism." Waziyata Win

Activists hold alternative meeting in Hawaii

2011-11-12T11:14:00.000+11:00

Housing NZ development in East Auckland affects residents of 50 years

2011-11-12T11:06:00.000+11:00

He whawhai mutunga kore - koira te korero a nga whanau Maori kei te rawhiti o Taamaki Makaurau e noho ana. No ratou nga kainga o Ruapotaka e turakina ana e Te Manatu Whare hei whakatu whare hou.

Public forum on WEST PAPUA

2011-11-10T16:42:00.001+11:00

Hello friends,

You might have seen some of the shocking reports that have been coming out of West Papua over the last month (in particular the coverage in New Matilda has been excellent http://www.newmatilda.com.au/2011/10/20/troops-open-fire-papuan-gathering ).

Here is a chance to get an update on the situation and some ideas on how you can act in solidarity with the people of West Papua. And a chance to enjoy some West Papuan food, a film and a West Papuan band The Black Orchid String Band.

When: Thursday the 17th November, 6pm
Where: Bella Union Bar, Trades Hall, Carlton, Victoria.

Freedom for West Papua - the latest on the struggle for self determination and human rights.

***BAND ***FOOD***Speakers***FILM***

Speakers from West Papuan community and solidarity activists on:

- the declaration of Independence and announcement of Papuan government leaders at the Third National People's Congress, and the subsequent repression of participants,
-the ongoing strike at the Freeport mine and,
- the East Asian Summit in Bali bringing together regional governments for strategic discussions (incl: Aus, US and China)

Speakers include:

* Welcome by Wurundjeri Traditional Owners.

*Terry Bukorpioper- appointed West Papuan UN representative

*Jacob Rumbiak-Executive President of West Papuan National Council

CHOGM protestors challenge police

2011-10-30T00:35:00.000+11:00

Fourth Death in Villawood Immigration Detention Centre

2011-10-27T18:17:00.001+11:00

RISE: Refugees, Survivors and Ex-Detainees Media Release

In the early hours of the morning, on Wednesday 26th October 2011, RISE was given the tragic news that “S”, a 27 year old Sri Lankan Tamil refugee from Villawood Immigration Detention centre (IDC) in the suburbs of Sydney, killed himself after drinking poison.

This day marked 2 years and 24 days of S’s mandatory and indefinite incarceration in Australia’s Immigration detention network. It also marked “Deepavali” (The Festival of Light) that he, as a Hindu, wished to celebrate at his friend’s house. The day before Deepavali, S received the news that his application to visit his friend’s house with SERCO escorts had been rejected by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. SERCO officers had inspected the house sometime back and had indicated to his friend that they were satisfied with the layout of the house.

With limited access to legal and other welfare support services for asylum seekers and refugees this man was among many whose application for refugee status was rejected twice in Christmas island IDC after they arrived by boat to seek asylum. S was finally accepted in August 2011 as a refugee, after the long struggle to get through the days in a non-transparent, hostile immigration detention environment including witnessing 3 deaths of fellow detainees who committed suicide in the space of 3 months in Villawood IDC.

All 8 who protested on the roof with “S” were subsequently recognised as refugees, but now, just three have been released with a visa, while the rest are still being held indefinitely in detention. One of these detainees is undergoing treatment for tuberculosis after repeated requests for medical treatment for more than a year. All of these detained refugees, including S, applied for community detention.

At the time of his death, S was held in the “housing” area. This is the same area in which a family (including 3 children) from the boat the Oceanic Viking are being held. Like S, they too have been detained for more than 2 years. Refugees with adverse security assessments held in other parts of Villawood IDC were informed on 25th October 2011, that they would be transferred to the housing area. One of these men, refused to move, with the statement that this was nothing more than “housing arrest” and did nothing to solve the problem of being detained indefinitely without any offer of a durable solution in sight.
Throughout his time in detention, S had been quite active in asserting his rights and questioning the actions of SERCO and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship that had kept him arbitrarily detained and moved haphazardly about Villawood IDC, particularly in the last 12 months of his incarceration. These actions included S's detention in isolation as well as SERCO staff conveniently removing him and the family from the Oceanic Viking from their rooms when the Australian Human Rights Commission came to Villawood IDC to interview detainees in the "housing" area. This latter act was considerably suspect given that these two parties had been in detention much longer than the other detainees in the "housing" area.

Just after he got his refugee status, a RISE advocate took down some notes in the faint hope that S would have his visa and soon be able to access our settlement program. He had years of work experience in Welding (including Gas cutting and X-ray welding) and had worked in the construction industry. Sadly, S's hope to settle and start a new life in Australia will now never come to pass.

To quote a refugee from Villawood detention centre: “Detention in Australia is like tying a person’s hands and putting food in front of him, which he cannot eat; after some time he loses his appetite and he doesn’t feel like eating it anymore. That is how we feel about life after we have been in detention.”

--
Regards,
RISE Media Unit
Refugee Survivors and Ex-detainees
247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, Victoria 3000.
Donate http://www.givenow.com.au/riserefugee
T:(03)9639 8623|M:0430 007 586|F:(03)9650 3689|Email:www.riserefugee.org/

Decolonise Occupy Auckland : Marama speaks for Maori women

2011-10-24T21:18:00.000+11:00

Marama Davidson a member of Te Wharepora Hou gave an update on what is happening at Occupy Auckland on Wednesday Oct 19, 2011 at Aotea Centre.

Occupy Melbourne Arrests showcase Melbourne’s slide into lawlessness

2011-10-24T20:24:00.000+11:00

MEDIA RELEASE 24 OCTOBER 2011Occupy Melbourne Arrests showcase Melbourne’s slide into lawlessnessStaff from the Fitzroy Legal Service attended as legal support on Friday 21 October 2011 as the Occupy Melbourne collective were moved on and dispersed by police horses, dogs, and around 200 members of the Victorian Police Force.

Having attended a good many sites in a similar capacity, staff observed the protestors to be remarkably peaceful. Of significance, there were no observations of criminal damage, projectiles, or violent struggle in arrest. This was despite the enormous police presence (which was not far from outnumbering protesters), provocative tactics, extensive injuries, and what seemed to be a complete and utter lack of regard for safety and wellbeing of community members in attendance.

Meghan Fitzgerald Lawyer at the Fitzroy Legal Service says: “The use of horses to ride directly into the crowd was appalling, and a measure that ordinary people would consider appropriate only in cases of dire emergency and public risk. When you decide to do that serious injuries are almost inevitable, and really call into question the role of the police in serving and protecting the community.

I personally observed a significant number of injuries amongst those arrested, including children.“The central issue is that political demonstration is a democratic right, and should be given significant protection by the State. Justifying this kind of aggressive use of force because of inconvenience or embarrassment is really a sign that we need to have a good look at human rights protection in this State.”

The numbers of people arrested was close to one hundred, with the vast majority released without charge.One of the big questions is how has a local council come to assume such power to silence political speech and demonstration, and who in government or police command authorized the militaristic policing approaches that were engaged?The rule of law and transparency of government action demands clear responses to these and other questions.Meghan Fitzgerald, Lawyer at the Fitzroy Legal Service says, “The people of Melbourne have a right to know who authorized this level of use of force to be unleashed on peaceful civilians.“It is irrelevant whether you agree or disagree with demonstrators.

The real issue is how important is freedom of political speech, and should peaceful demonstrators walk away with serious injuries and/ or in fear and trauma? If anything, these actions will strengthen some of the core messages of the protest, that the decision making of the powerful does not represent the views or interests of the majority of Victorians. Most Victorians believe the right to protest is worth fighting for, and that people gathering peacefully to express their views should not be subject to violence of any kind.”

For further media comment: Meghan Fitzgerald, Fitzroy Legal Service 0450 977 447

"We Called Ourselves the Children of Malcolm"

2011-10-19T08:11:00.000+11:00

Te Wharepora Hou call to delay police spy camera bill

2011-09-26T17:34:00.000+10:00

Civil liberties form the basis for a working democracy

2011-09-20T08:38:00.000+10:00

Search and Surveillance Bill Submission by New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties

Civil liberties form the basis for a working democracy

Far from promoting people’s civil liberties and human rights, the Bill has very few measures to protect those rights, and a large number of measures that can be exploited to infringe those rights, not only of people suspected of committing criminal acts, but also others inadvertently caught up in the activities. Enforcement agencies should be given powers of search, seizure and especially surveillance very sparingly and with limits and safeguards to ensure they are only used for the particular purposes of the agency. The agencies must not be given open powers such as proposed in this legislation. It is the role of parliament to support, promote and protect civil liberties.

Civil liberties form the basis for a working democracy. This Bill constitutes a failure of Parliament to undertake its core function, the protection of the rights of the people it serves. Search and Surveillance Bill 2009 1. Search and Surveillance Bill 2009 There is no denying the need for some clarity and consistency regarding operations and procedures relating to search, seizure and surveillance in New Zealand. In some respects the Search and Surveillance Bill does a good job in making explicit procedures to be followed and parameters of the powers of police and other law enforcement agencies. The Bill gives effect to the Law Commission report, including the extension of the law to meet new electronic communication processes. However the Bill does much more than consider clarity and consistency, or extending to electronic communication the powers in existing law.

It provides police with rights to stop and search vehicles without warrant, to require operators of computers to provide access to all files, it compels people to provide evidence, and permits unwarranted surveillance of businesses and home addresses. The most serious challenge to civil liberties is however that all agencies engaged in enforcement activities will be covered by the same extensive search and surveillance powers as the police and customs. The agencies covered by this include government departments (Department of Labour and Immigration, Department of Conservation, Ministry of Fisheries, Department of Social Welfare/WINZ, Customs), Crown entities (Accident Compensation Commission, Civil Aviation Authority), local authorities (Auckland City Council), or other bodies (NZ Food Standards Authority) that employ or engage enforcement officers. This massive extension of the powers of these agencies has been undertaken not because of need but in the name of ‘consistency’. 2. Balancing civil liberties and security In the Law Commission report, and in parliamentary and public discussion on the Bill, there has been much talk of getting the balance right between civil liberties and security. NZCCL submits that in reality this argument is used only when civil liberties are being eroded. Only rarely in New Zealand history has legislation increased people’s civil liberties or reduced the coercive powers of the State.

Over the last few years, in the name of the ‘war against terrorism’ there has been, in New Zealand, as across the industrialised countries, massive increase in the powers of the state to intrude on the rights of people. This Bill, in the name of creating consistency between government agencies, in fact constitutes another step in a major assault on the traditional rights of New Zealanders, as enshrined in the Bill of Rights Act. It provides a range of law enforcement agencies, and especially the police, with search, seizure and surveillance powers that can be used indiscriminately and with little accountability. 3. The Bill in context The Bill needs to be seen in the context of a plethora of other acts that have been passed during the last few years in the name of ‘the war on terrorism’, including the Terrorism Suppression (Bombings and Finances) Act, the Crimes Amendment Act, the Border Security Act, the Telecommunications (Interception Capability) Act, the Police Act, and many others. The effect of these has been to greatly expand the powers of the police, the SIS and the GCSB to use classified information, to use surveillance, to arrest and detain people under suspicion of terrorism. At the same time the rights of those people to silence and to non-self-incrimination, to access to the information about them, and to legal remedies has been reduced. Some of the legislation has been made exempt from the Bill of Rights Act.

It is clear that similar legislation has been used in other Western countries (including USA, Canada and England) to spy on minority communities and protest groups. There is considerable evidence that that also happens in this country. Recently released information confirms that the SIS has spied on New Zealanders' lawful behaviour and private lives for many decades. We know that different police units have also spied on political activists for many years. The number of units and their surveillance of activist groups and individuals have expanded as the police gained new resources and powers under the ‘anti-terrorism’ laws. Police entities such as the Strategic Intelligence Unit, Threat Assessment Unit and Special Investigation Group feed information into a super-spy group known as the Combined Threat Assessment Group that also includes the SIS, Defence force, GSCB, DPMC. There is no effective public accountability for their activities. Given the blurred boundary line between political activism, criminal offending, threats to security and terrorism, more search and surveillance powers for the police will inevitably feed into this network, and the extension of those powers to other enforcement agencies signals the advent of a society where people can no longer feel themselves safe to express themselves openly.

This Bill, then, is not only a covert and major extension of the powers of surveillance and search to a large number of other government agencies, but is part of a system that has gradually been introduced that suppresses dissent and minority views. 3. The role of government The Bill calls into question the role of a government in a democracy, and the sort of country we would like to see in the future. In the news we see on a day-to-day basis the effects of governments that ally with law enforcement agencies to produce ever more sophisticated processes to combat crime. We know that in those countries with the most oppressive regimes crime has become endemic, and the government uses the measures they have introduced to spy on and oppress dissenting voices and minority groups. In a democracy, it is not the role of the government to ‘balance civil liberties and security’ but to ensure that civil liberties are maintained, even if it may make law enforcement more difficult. Otherwise the government itself becomes oppressive.

The Law Commission report spends considerable time discussing what constitutes ‘reasonable expectation of privacy’. NZCCL considers that this Bill intrudes on the reasonable expectation of privacy as outlined in Section 21 of the Bill of Rights Act : “…to be secure from unreasonable search or seizure, whether of the person, property, or correspondence, or otherwise”. 4. Law by stealth Although it has been sold as a rationalisation of the search, seizure and surveillance powers or a range of existing government agencies (described in up to 50 other pieces of legislation) the Bill in fact increases the power of most of those agencies, to the extent that any of them may use surveillance equipment, seize and copy documents without consent, and require both work and private computer documents to be opened.

The Bill also increases the power of police to conduct car and house searches without warrant, to seize property that may be incidental to a search warrant, and charge people who fail to cooperate. In effect the Bill removes the right of people not to incriminate themselves, by making it a requirement that the operator of a computer open up files to the police. It makes it very easy for all agencies to go on fishing expeditions, and makes it hard for suspects to appeal, because their rights to view evidence against them are diminished. It is the view of NZCCL that changes as substantial as these need to be subject to public debate, instead of being hidden in a complex bill that is promoted as doing administrative tidying up. The Bill challenges the rights and freedoms that are at the heart of our democracy. 5. No case for the increase in powers No strong case has been made, either in the Law Commission report or in the subsequent discussion, for the increase in the powers of the State to search cars and houses without warrant, to seize personal property, to flout laws relating to privilege, to use a range of surveillance measures with little accountability, and to charge people who fail to cooperate.

The argument for increasing such powers has been made in the context of creating consistency between agencies, not based around clear evidence of need. 6. The role of the police The Law Commission report makes various benign statements about the role of the police and other law enforcement agencies: “Law enforcement agencies exist ultimately to protect rather than to control the community” (p.23); “The police and other law enforcement agencies are, after all, meant to be of the people for the people” (p.37). It considers that the police are not opposed to civil liberties but wish to protect them. It is the experience of NZCCL over many years that the police have no regard for civil liberties, and indeed have been the main instigators of the erosion of civil liberties within this country. The police push the boundaries of their power to the limit. It is fatuous to consider that police will use sparingly the powers provided in this Bill, or with regard to the civil liberties of the people who are suspects or caught up in their actions. Yet there is little check in the Bill of the powers of the police.

There are no strong reporting requirements for any of the new powers, and indeed for some of them there are no reporting requirements at all. Thus the police are to a large extent able to be unaccountable and act with impunity. 7. In conclusion It is clear that this Bill attempts to do too much, and so issues of real concern are inadequately addressed. Not only has it the potential to trample on people’s rights, but it may also lead to greater confusion than it is intended to resolve, when a range of enforcement agencies determine to use their new coercive powers. Far from promoting people’s civil liberties and human rights, the Bill has very few measures to protect those rights, and a large number of measures that can be exploited to infringe those rights, not only of people suspected of committing criminal acts, but also others inadvertently caught up in the activities. NZCCL suggests that the Bill be divided into at least two separate Bills, so that the guidelines over the issuing of warrants and other powers, and the reporting of results, are separated from parts considering new powers given to various agencies.

NZCCL considers that enforcement agencies should be given powers of search, seizure and especially surveillance very sparingly and with limits and safeguards to ensure they are only used for the particular purposes of the agency. The agencies must not be given open powers such as proposed in this legislation. Finally, NZCCL considers that it is the role of parliament to support, promote and protect civil liberties. Civil liberties form the basis for a working democracy. This Bill constitutes a failure of Parliament to undertake its core function, the protection of the rights of the people it serves.

Recommendations 1. That the Bill be split into two parts, one considering the procedural, administrative, reporting and accountability requirements pertaining to all search, seizure and surveillance activities carried out by officers of any enforcement agency, and the other relating to the increase in powers of the police, to set up road blocks, to stop and search vehicles, to search without warrant, and other powers. 2. That the part of the Bill relating to all enforcement agencies be restricted to procedural, administrative, reporting and accountability requirements, with the authority for each agency to use the powers to be determined individually on the basis that they should only have the power if there is a strong necessity for it in order to undertake their enforcement activity. 3. That the part of the Bill relating to increase in police powers be subject to further public debate and scrutiny. 4. That a report should be written at the conclusion of ALL search, seizure and surveillance activities, whether or not they are done under warrant or other permission, with that report detailing the purpose, the procedure and the result of the activity. These reports should be subject to external scrutiny, both to determine the effectiveness of the activities and to ensure they are used only where there is a clear purpose that could only be resolved by the use. 5. That clear processes of complaint and redress are included, to ensure that people wrongfully caught up in the search, seizure and surveillance activities have their rights protected

Batch Hales NZCCL Committee 16 September 2009

Charges against 13 from Urewera Police raids dropped

2011-09-13T07:58:00.000+10:00

Ahakoa kua hikina nga whakapae whakatuatea i nga pokohiwi o te tekau ma toru, kahore i hikina ake te ture e ahei ai ratou ki te korero mo nga hara i tau iho ai ki runga i a ratou i roto i te wha tau kua pahure.

Will Australia and New Zealand really allow sovereignty to Pacific Countries on Trade Decisions

2011-09-12T18:59:00.000+10:00

MEDIA RELEASE 13th September, 2011

The Pacific Island Forum Leaders meeting final communique contained commitments on many of the issues currently under negotiation in PACER-Plus. The Australian Fair Trade Campaign (AFTINET) and Australia’s aid watchdog, AID/WATCH, today call upon both the New Zealand and Australian governments to take this opportunity to reflect and move PACER-Plus away from being a Regional Free Trade Agreement to being a genuine development-based agreement.

AFTINET and AID/WATCH welcome the clear indication that Australia and New Zealand, in noting without objection the Pacific Leaders Meeting outcomes, has accepted the right of the Forum Island Countries to have sovereign control over decisions about the Office of the Chief Trade Advisor and its role.

The Pacific Leaders agreed “that Forum Island Countries have the sovereign right to determine from where they receive advice on trade matters, and that any decision on the scope of the activities of the OCTA is a matter solely for the determination of Forum Island Countries."

AFTINET Trade Justice Campaigner Harvey Purse said, “The Forum Island Countries have made their position clear. Australia and New Zealand should accept the rights of the Forum Island Countries for self-determination and sovereignty on trade and economic matters, particularly the OCTA.”
Comments last week by the outgoing Chief Trade Adviser have outlined how the most recent draft funding agreement offered to the OCTA by Australia undermines the sovereignty of the Forum Island Countries to choose where they get their trade advice.

AID/WATCH sees this week’s outcomes as a clear way forward for resolving the funding issues with the OCTA. “Given the decisions from leaders, AusAID (Australia’s aid agency) needs to provide a draft funding agreement that doesn’t limit the remit of the OCTA. The directions have been clear and AIDWATCH will continue to monitor AusAIDs response,” said Matt Hilton, AID/WATCH Chairperson.

AFTINET and AID/WATCH also welcome the commitment from the Leaders to raise the level of dialogue with civil society to put it on an equal playing field with business. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key confirmed this in a media conference on release of the communiqué.
Mr Purse stated, “We look forward to civil society participation at the next Pacific Island Forum Leaders meeting in the Cook Islands in 12 months. We hope Australia and New Zealand assist with funding to ensure full participation from civil society groups from all forum member states”.

For more information:

Harvey Purse, Trade Justice Campaigner, AFTINET,ph: +61 2 9212 7242, campaign@aftinet.org.au Matt Hilton, AID/WATCH Chairperson. Ph: +61 2 423 106 247, mathrew.hilton@gmail.com

The Indigenous Call: Take Back Our Future

2011-09-03T21:00:00.000+10:00

NGOs tell Australia to Respect Island Country Sovereignty – Australia Risks its Reputation in the Pacific

2011-09-02T20:37:00.004+10:00

MEDIA RELEASE:

Non Government Organisations from the Pacific and Australia are calling on the Australian Government to not use next week’s Pacific Islands Forum Leaders' Meeting to undermine the sovereignty of the Island Countries.

The call comes ahead of the upcoming decision by PIF Leaders on the mandate for the Office of the Chief Trade Advisor (OCTA), the body established to provide independent trade policy advice to the Forum Island Countries. The OCTA was a precondition of the Islands for entering into negotiations for the regional free trade agreement known as “PACER-Plus” however its mandate has again become an issue.

The Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) sees the decision as a matter of sovereignty for the Island Countries. “Previous statements by Forum Island Country Trade Ministers have made their views clear on this, they see the remit of OCTA as a decision that they and they alone should make. Sadly it appears that Australia in particular is standing in the way of allowing the Islands to determine where they get their trade advice from” commented PANG Campaigner Adam Wolfenden.
The issue has become critical following developments in trade negotiations with the European Union. Significant concerns have been expressed in relation to the support provided by the Pacific Island Forum Secretariat. Claims of negligence and conflicts of interest has prompted discussions to move the negotiation support to another body, possible the OCTA.

Harvey Purse, campaigner for the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET) sees any attempts by Australia to undermine the sovereignty of the Islands as a major concern. “Australia continues to promote good governance in the region but now appears to be limiting the ability of the Island Governments to determine what is in their interest. Prime Minister Gillard has a chance to use this year’s Leaders forum to show Australia respects the sovereignty of the Island Governments by ensuring the decision on the OCTA remains in the hands of the Island Governments,” stated Mr Purse.

Funding for the OCTA continues to be an ongoing issue with Australia offering a funding agreement that the OCTA has said challenges Pacific sovereignty. “Australia seems intent to pay lip service to the OCTA by saying they support it and are happy to fund it but then turn around and offer funding agreements that limit its mandate which effectively tells the Islands where they have to get their trade policy from” continued Mr Wolfenden.

“The leaders Forum is a chance for Australia to show that it is prepared to listen to the Pacific Islands, and support their right to sovereign control of bodies like OCTA. This would demonstrate genuine commitment to good governance and development in the Pacific, or” concluded Mr Purse.

For more information:

Adam Wolfenden, Ph: 0401 045 536, E: campaigner@pang.org.fj Harvey Purse, Ph: (02) 9212 7242 or 0404 140 886, E: campaign@aftinet.org.au

GCSB awarded judgment against Waihopai 3 without full hearing

2011-09-01T06:53:00.000+10:00

Media release: Adrian Leason

1 September 2011

High Court associate Judge David Gendall delivered his summary judgement ruling yesterday in relation to the Crown Civil suit of the three Waihopai Christian activists. In a 15 page decision Judge Gendall concluded that the defences raised by the three peacemakers fails to make the threshold for an arguable case and has awarded damages against the three men pre-emptively without allowing the case to proceed to a trial.

In contrast, after eight days of evidence at the activists' criminal trial in March last year, a jury ruled the men not guilty of all criminal charges.

In response to the announcement Otaki school teacher Adrian Leason said "Judge Gendall was always going to be under pressure to avoid a full hearing. Clearly the judge has worked hard on his ruling, however early indications suggest that he is in error on several crucial points of law. Over the next few days we will have a chance to discuss the details with our legal friends. If errors have been made we will pursue recourse through the appeal court process."

Mr Leason also expressed disappointment that the GCSB was awarded judgment without having to front up to a full court process. The latest hearing was notable for the absence of any GCSB representatives. Judge Gendall's decision cuts short the legal process by awarding summary judgment to the GSCB without a court considering the defence's arguments, many of which implicate the spybase in human rights abuses and war atrocities as part of the US wars in Iraq in Afghanistan. Mr Leason noted the GCSB's consistent stance of "neither confirming nor denying", saying "few people would want to know every detail of the GCSB"s operations, however some level of transparency and accountability is not an unreasonable request given the highly controversial nature of electronic intelligence gathering and its key role in the US-led war on terror."

The decision to seek summary judgment rather than proceeding to a trial is an understandable compromise between the government's embarrassment at last year's acquittal and the GCSB's reluctance to be subject to any kind of public scrutiny.

It is a novel measure to seek an alternative route to punishment through the civil courts. Documents unveiled by whistleblower website Wikileaks recently revealed that after the 2006 acquittal of the Irish 'Pitstop Ploughshares' who disarmed a US war plane at the Shannon Airport in the early days of the Iraq war, US officials contemplated suing the peacemakers for damages. US ambassador to Ireland James Kenny wrote to then-US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the wake of the acquittal assuring him of Irish government's loyalty to US war efforts "in the face of public criticism", and suggesting a civil suit or similar measure "to convey [US] dissatisfaction with the Shannon Five verdict"; but evidently it was not considered worthwhile.

Documents were produced during the criminal trial costing repairs to the Waihopai radome and fencing at approximately $1.2 million. Attorney-General Christopher Finlayson has signalled the Crown's intention to seek recovery of the full amount plus court costs. He did not make any attempt to defend the $500 million of taxpayers' money spent on building the base over the past 22 years amid the complete absence of any measurable benefits for New Zealand.

http://ploughshares.org.nz

Whats Goin On, Majic 2011

2011-08-28T20:24:00.000+10:00

Chief Selwyn Garu on land in Vanuatu

2011-08-21T22:05:00.000+10:00

Chief Selwyn Garu speaks on customary land in Vanuatu and the problems brought about by (Australian-backed) attempts to commercialise it.

George Jackson - 40 year commemoration

2011-08-19T14:29:00.000+10:00

August 21st marks the 40th anniversary of the execution of George Lester Jackson. The Chicago- born Jackson would have celebrated his 70th birthday on September 23rd.

Jackson was a prisoner who became an author, a member of the Black Panther Party, and co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family prison organization. He achieved global fame as one of the Soledad Brothers before being executed by prison guards in San Quentin Prison.

Based on an edited portion of Prisons on Fire by the Freedom Archives (2001) with video editing by Oriana Bolden.

Morgan Godfrey comments on Tuku Morgan

2011-08-17T10:42:00.003+10:00

Same old tuku tarau he's just another authoritarian Maori 'leader' who hates being held accountable....to anybody. I'm Impressed with Morgan Godfery his comments about Tuku being bound to the ideology of privitisation showed more insight & intelligence than the Maori media hacks that interviewed him.

Check out Morgans blog Maui Street & a huge shout out to all the other Maori bloggers out their giving voice to the unheard our flaxroots.

More here about tuku selling out to private prison companies & facilitating the expansion of the prison industrial complex in Aotearoa.

Tainui supports privately managed prisons

Corporate Iwi: Doing business with human rights abusers

Iwi Capitalists provide brownwash for prison privitisation in NZ

The idea is that iwi, or groupings of iwi, or iwi-private joint ventures will invest in parts of the country's infrastructure, such as hospitals, schools, prisons and roads, through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) with the government. This has become more of a reality because the National-led government has made it clear it is more amenable to this type of arrangement than the previous government.

TAINUI WANT CHANCE TO BE OWN GOALERS

Tainui chair Tukoroirangi Morgan says Tainui will put its hat into the ring to run private prisons.

Tuku Morgan says the government's announcement to allow private companies to run prisons will offer Maori opportunities to invest, manage and own infrustructural development.... See More

He says this is something Tainui believes is critical for long term sustainability and a matter he has personally taken up with prime minister John Key.

“At Waitangi I was part of the presentation to the Prime Minister including the deputy PM pushing the issue of public private developments. We think it is an intelligent approach by iwi to get involved in important infrastructural development,” Mr Morgan says

Tainui chair Tukoroirangi Morgan says Tainui will put its hat into the ring to run private prisons.

Akala - Fire In The Booth

2011-08-11T22:56:00.000+10:00

Darcus Howe on the 'London Riots'

2011-08-09T21:38:00.002+10:00

Darcus Howe, a West Indian Writer and Broadcaster with a voice about the riots. Speaking about the mistreatment of youths by police leading to an up-roar and the ignorance of both police and the governement

ANTI EXTRACTION HUI 29-31 JULY

2011-07-26T11:51:00.001+10:00

NGA WHARE WAATEA MARAE, MANGERE, AUCKLAND

wi Leaders, Runanga Chairpersons, Natural Resource managers, Activist groups and concerned individuals

E nga Rangatira tena koutou katoa

The government is embarking upon an aggressive national minerals extraction programme that has serious implications for Maori land, conservation land and the marine environment. A number of iwi throughout the country including Te Whanau a Apanui, Ngapuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngati Kahu, Te Arawa, Ngati Porou, and Ngai Tahu have expressed extreme concern and in some cases taken direct action to protect the environmental integrity of their tribal territories.

To add insult to injury and hard on the heels of the discriminatory Coastal and Marine ACT, the present government is considering a new bill to be called the Exclusive Economic Zone and Extended Continental Shelf ACT which will alienate the marine area from the 12 mile limit out to the 200 mile limit of the economic exclusion zone.

In effect this new legislation will be a rerun of the Foreshore and Seabed disgrace, and is contrary to the rights and guarantees contained within Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

In addition the recently established the Environmental Protection Agency will fast track “projects of national significance” and the EPA will allow by-pass the requirements in the RMA to consult with Maori and this is of great concern to many Iwi Maori organizations and interest groups.

If this is not enough, the government is also secretly negotiating the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) with a number of Pacific Rim countries, which will provide the opportunity for multi national companies to avoid NZ regulations and seek compensation from NZ taxpayers for any obstacles to their ability to extract profits from our natural resources.

Therefore I would like to invite representatives of your organization to attend a national hui to be held at Nga Whare Watea Marae, Mangere, Tamaki Makarau 29th -31st of July to consider this situation and develop a national response to these issues.

In reflection it is instructive to consider the national Maori response to the Foreshore and Seabed issue whereby over 40,000 concerned Maori demonstrated against the governments refusal to allow Maori to contest the governments arbitrary confiscation of the marine area out to the 12-mile limit. The government’s response was to ignore Maori concerns. In stark contrast, when the government proposed to allow mining in schedule 4 protected conservation land, 50,000 citizens demonstrated against the policy and the policy was immediately dropped.

As a result this national hui will also engage with a number of environment NGO’s and concerned community groups to develop a united strategy to address these issues of mutual concern.

Date: 29th-31st July 2011

Venue: Nga Whare Watea Marae
31 Calthorp Close Mangere

Powhiri: 4.00pm Friday 29th July 2011

No rei ra rau rangatira ma, e nga iwi o nga moutere o Aotearoa nau mai haere mai whakapiripiri mai!

na Mike Smith
Ngapuhi – Ngati Kahu
National Political Advisor, Greenpeace Aotearoa.
Ph. 021 504486
email: michael.smith@greenpeace.org

Registration Form & Info

Rob Stary speaks protesting against gag imposed on Lex Wotton

2011-07-23T00:02:00.000+10:00

REST IN UHURU Brother Geronimo ji Jaga

2011-07-21T23:28:00.000+10:00

Robbie Thorpe : A message from the streets

2011-07-09T10:31:00.000+10:00

dayle takitimu

2011-06-20T07:55:00.000+10:00

Geronimo Day July 17th Bobby Hutton Park

2011-06-12T09:41:00.000+10:00

Greetings Comrades and Friends:

Due to the limited size of Eastside Arts Alliance, we are having a Memorial for geronimo at Bobby Hutton Park (DeFremery Park). This event will be held Sunday July 17th. The park is located at 18th and Adeline in West Oakland across the street from the W. Oakland Library.

The Memorial will start at about 3pm. Come celebrate the life of a Revoulationary. For more information check www.itsabouttimebpp.com or call 916-455-0908 or the BPP Commemorator Newspaper 510-652-7170.
We would like to thank Claude Marks of Freedom Archives, Neome Banks of OCS Alunmi and Carol and Big Man for all their help.

Billy X Jennings

Ballerrt Mooroop Protest

2011-06-07T17:12:00.000+10:00

Māori Politicians placate homophobia for votes

2011-06-07T12:48:00.000+10:00

The recent attendance of a group of Māori male politicians at the Destiny Church annual conference and their advocacy for the supposed benefits of that church to Māori people highlights the political purgatory that Māori find ourselves in leading up to the November election.

The scenes of Pita Sharples, Hone Harawira, Tau Henare and Shane Jones lining up to be ‘blessed’ and to hear their platitudes of thanks to a homophobic and misogynist institution is not merely disturbing it is sickening. We should never forget the ‘enough is enough’ hate marches instigated by Destiny Church. We should never forget the kinds of hate speeches that Māori gay and lesbian whānau were bombarded with during the Civil Union debate, and the ongoing homophobia that Destiny Church leaders and members continue to openly express with both fervor and hatred.

So, who benefits from a group of heterosexual Māori male politicians standing on such a stage? Not one of those Māori men challenged the underpinning homophobia and misogyny that is espoused by Brian Tamaki. Rather it was avoided like the plague. What does that say to the many Māori gay and lesbian people within our whānau? It says that yet again we are easily sacrificed for 0.5% of the vote.

Dr Leonie Pihama
Māori And Indigenous Analysis Ltd.
Fulbright Scholar, Indigenous Wellness Research Institute, University of Seattle.

Contact may be made Skype (leoniepihama) for further comment.

Concerned Citizens Exhibition

2011-06-05T14:57:00.000+10:00

Press Release

More than 50 artists from around New Zealand will be exhibiting work in Wellington at the start of next month to raise funds and public awareness for the arrestees of the 2007 October 15 "terror raids." Exhibited works range from paintings, sculptures, and animation, to a reproduction of the assassination device police claim "terror raids" arrestees planned to use - a catapult designed to launch a bus onto the head of former US president George Bush.

According to contributing artist and spokesperson Lance Ravenswood, the charges against the 18 arrestees of the October 15 raids are "just silly. Any sensible person should feel that the police and courts need a good telling-off about the way they’ve been behaving.” A number of prominent figures have also spoken out against the handling of the case, including civil rights lawyer Moana Jackson and Professor Jane Kelsey.

“Why have these people been denied a trial by jury? Why is there so much secrecy surrounding the legal proceedings? The police seem to be equating legitimate political and environmental activism with terrorism," says Ravenswood.

Richard Meros, author of On the Conditions and Possibilities of Helen Clark Taking Me as Her Young Lover, will be exhibiting a piece in a similar tone, entitled Your Honour We Eat These Charges For Breakfast, featuring berry-soaked strips of the 2002 Terrorism Suppression Act (TSA).

“This muesli celebrates the afternoon the Solicitor General’s office struck down the use of the TSA against those arrested on October 15, 2007, reminding bowels and brains that the charges of terrorism were not even strong enough to be presented to a court” says Meros.

The exhibition will open at the Garrett Street exhibition space on Friday June 3rd at 4:30pm, followed by a screening of Errol Wright and Abi King-Jones’ documentary about the October 15th raids, “Operation 8: Deep in the Forest”. Viewing will continue over the weekend.

“We’re concerned about whether justice is being done here. Lots of people in the community have questions about this case - we want them to get together, experience some great art, and talk about what’s going on,” says Lance Ravenswood. “As artists, we want to do what we can to help 18 New Zealanders who are being punished, before the trial even takes place, by an immense financial burden in a drawn-out battle against extremely questionable charges. That’s why we’re donating our work, to raise funds to support the defendants and their families through the trial.”

The Concerned Citizens exhibition will feature work from up and coming as well as more established artists, including Peter Madden, Roger Morris, Bryce Galloway, Arlo Edwards, Kerry Ann Lee, and Tao Wells, creator of the controversial Beneficiary’s Office installation in 2010.

More info : Here

Black Panther Party 45th yr Celebration Oakland 2011

2011-05-26T09:11:00.001+10:00

click on pic for a larger image

more info please check out

http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/home/home.html

JVDK - Souffrance (Eloi Machoro Homage)[Knkyflysh]

2011-05-25T20:17:00.000+10:00

Kanaky awaits decolonisation

2011-05-23T02:32:00.000+10:00

Keny Arkana - V pour Vérités ( english subtitles)

2011-05-21T01:23:00.000+10:00

Drop the Charges: Auckland Forum on the Upcoming ‘Terror raids’ Trial

2011-05-17T10:46:00.000+10:00

Public Meeting:
6:30pm Friday 20th May 2011
B15 Lecture Theatre (Library Basement)
University of Auckland

On May 30th a 12 week long trial for 15 of those arrested in the so called ‘terror raids’ of 15 October 2007 will begin in the Auckland High Court.

On October 15 2007 armed police raided homes across New Zealand, claiming that a range of Maori, environmental and anti-war activists were planning terrorist attacks. Eighteen people were arrested – most of whom were held in prison for four weeks while the Police applied to charge them under the Terrorism Suppression Act. The Solicitor General refused to allow the Police to proceed with the terrorism charges.

All of the 15 are facing charges of possession of weapons under the Arms Act. Five are charged with ‘participation in an organised criminal group’.

A number of prominent New Zealanders, including academics, legal experts and Maori leaders have written to the Solicitor General calling for the charges to be dropped, as the trial will be unfair as the defendants have been denied many crucial civil rights, including the right to a jury trial.

This panel discussion will discuss the ramifications of the case for civil rights in New Zealand and why the charges should be dropped.

Speakers:

David Clendon: Green MP

John Minto: Spokesman for Global Peace and Justice Auckland

Tame Iti: Drug and Alcohol counsellor for Tūhoe Hauora Trust and defendant in the case.

Syd Keepa: Vice President Maori for New Zealand Council of Trade Unions

Khylee Quince: University of Auckland Law Lecturer

Barry Wilson: Auckland Council for Civil Liberties

Maui Street: Shame, utter shame

2011-05-11T08:04:00.000+10:00

Maui Street: Shame, utter shame: "The Herald screams : Maori supporters threatened – claim I don't believe this. This is baseless innuendo straight from Mrs Smear herself...Tariana"

Return to Palestine

2011-05-06T08:17:00.000+10:00

On the 15th of May of every year, Palestinians and the whole world remember how it all started. How the Israelis' ethnic cleansing of a people and the destruction of a society - the Nakba - was met with global indifference. Many factors made it so, but among them was a Zionist propaganda machine that illustrated the crime committed in Palestine in 1948 as a war of independence against aggressive Arabs and Palestinians.

It is true that the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab people resisted the establishment of a racist regime in Palestine. And they still do. It is only normal. If anyone comprehends the extent of the injustice that has been committed against the Palestinian people, they would not even ask why they are so determined in their pursuit of justice. And if anyone knows the history of the Palestinian struggle, they would realize that this people will continue to resist in every form until they see the justice they have so longed for restored.

On 15 May 2011, the world is invited to express its understanding, solidarity and support to a people that has resisted... and continues to do so, for Justice in Palestine

Annette Sykes on the Te Mana Party

2011-05-04T10:22:00.000+10:00

Solicitor-General urged to drop case against Urewera 18

2011-04-29T11:14:00.000+10:00

Call of Solicitor-General to Stay Case against Urewera 18

Solicitor-General David Collins has been urged to exercise his discretion to stay the proceedings against the Urewera 18 who are due to face trial in early May, more than three and a half years after their arrest in police raids on 15 October 2007.

The request came in a letter co-sponsored by lawyers Moana Jackson of Ngati Kahungunu and Professor Jane Kelsey from the University of Auckland. It was endorsed by over 150 prominent Maori, academics and social justice campaigners.

“The accused, their whanau and the whole of Tuhoe have had this hanging over them for almost four years, unable to live a normal life. They already carry the label of ‘terrorists’ forever”, Moana Jackson said.

“Now they face the human and financial costs of a twelve week trial in Auckland. To achieve what? To vindicate the police’s anti-terrorism powers and the waste of millions of dollars trying to prove there was some terrorist plot based in Tuhoe?”, Mr Jackson asked.

“The situation is totally out of hand. The Solicitor-General needs to step in and bring the whole wretched episode to a close, as they did with the Bastion Point prosecutions in 1978.”

Professor Kelsey observed that “The efficiency of the court system has already been put ahead of their right to trial by jury. This is not a clinical, technical case; it requires people’s common sense about what was actually going on”.

“The right to a jury trial is fundamental to this case. And if the publicity means there can’t be an untainted jury, as the Solicitor-General himself said in the contempt case against Fairfax and the Dominion Post,[1] then the Crown needs to stay the proceedings.”

“The credibility of the justice system is at stake”, said Professor Kelsey.

Activists dig in their heels over Brighton bypass

2011-04-18T23:31:00.000+10:00

Ma wai e tautoko?

2011-04-17T10:32:00.000+10:00

Ma wai e tautoko e,
Te huarahi mo te iwi Maori e?
Puputia nga whakaaro e,
E nga upoko ariki e

Aue, kia manawanui
Kia tupato i nga tini whakawai
A te hiriwa e kapakapa ake nei
Nga iwi e - Ina

Who will support
The cries of the Maori
Unity in thought and discussion is needed
Our great leaders

Be vigilant
Be not tempted by the lures
Of flashing riches
My people, hear my plea!

Written by Tuini Ngawai.
OUR MANA IS NOT FOR SALE!
NO DRILLING IN OUR TRIBAL TERRITORY!

Brisbane Rally 20th anniversary of royal commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody

2011-04-17T10:27:00.001+10:00

FMG Great Native Title Swindle

2011-04-14T13:09:00.001+10:00

Caught in the act - this is a record of a supposed 'native title' meeting staged by the iron ore miner, Fortescue Metals Group (FMG). It shows how FMG, its agents, a lawyer and an opportunist splinter faction tried to destroy the unity of the Yindjibarndi people and give open slather to FMG for its Solomon Hub project. The video demonstrates the unscrupulous actions of a miner trying to bully traditional owners into a land use 'Agreement' that will see massive disturbance of country and will swindle several generations of Yindjibarndi people

See Also:

Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation

Solidarity From Taranaki: Stop Deep Sea Oil Drilling

2011-04-13T10:28:00.000+10:00

"Climate Justice Taranaki sends a message of solidarity to the people of the East Coast who are, with the help of environmental groups, successfully stopping a deep sea seismic survey in the Raukumara Basin" says Climate Justice Taranaki spokesperson Teresa Goodin.

"The brave actions taken out at sea are the result of months of organising by East Coast iwi and environmental organisations like Greenpeace, C350, Forest and Bird, Board Riders Against Drilling and the Coal Action Network of Aotearoa. We are looking forward to such actions taking place here in Taranaki where seismic surveying is happening right now, as oil and gas companies' try to majorly expand drilling on and offshore."

"Our group is opposed to the massive expansion of oil and gas exploration in New Zealand because of the increased risks of further oil spills, soil and water contamination and the contribution to climate change."

"The actions taken by the people of the East Coast are an inspiration to us and many others around the globe. We will continue to organise here towards the longterm goal of a fossil-fuel free Taranaki. On April 20th, the one-year anniversary of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, We are holding a rally in New Plymouth to further raise awareness in the community." concludes Teresa Goodin.

Haere Atu Petrobras

2011-04-08T07:53:00.001+10:00

This Ngeri was written at the request of Ani Pahuru-Huriwai in protest of the PETROBRAS hui called at Hinerupe marae. It was completed on the 6th of April 2011. It focuses on the power of unity in challenging times and in times of hardship. It calls for all people to unite and together, overcome adversity.

Here are the kupu and whakapākeha.

Kekē-pōhatu... kekē tī kekē!
Kekē-pōhatu... kekē tī kekē!
Kekē tī Kekē-pōhatu hurihuri, hau-kauangaroa,
Katakata te Raukūmara ā haha!
Aha, Hiti tā-hiti... kekē tī kekē!
Hiti tā-hiti... kekē tī kekē!
Hi!!!

The stones rattle,
The stones rattle,
The stones rattle and turn, coming together to create crossings through vast waters
With a rumbling that echos through the Raukūmara
Build the stones high, let them rattle,
Build the stones high, let them rattle!
Na Robert Ruha i tito.

Callout for global support and solidarity : Maori communities face off with Petrobras over drilling permit
Source

Your support and solidarity is urgently needed!

Tino Rangatiratanga Flag : symbol of Maori self determination which embraces the spiritual link Māori have with Papatuanuku (Earthmother) and is a part of the international drive by indigenous people for self determination.

1. Contact media in your country, write a press release supporting the communities in New Zealand that are threatened by mining activities and supporting their efforts to defend themselves. International media coverage is needed to put pressure on Petrobras and the New Zealand government NOW.
2. Use this information to alert your colleagues, networks and members of your organisation to what is happening in New Zealand through email lists, newsletters, magazines, bulletins etc.
3. Send a message of global support and solidarity to nodrillnz@gmail.com. Let these communities know that they are not alone, and that they are a part of a global movement for climate justice.
4. Consider taking action against Petrobras in your own country as a way of supporting what is happening here, and building links between your organisation or community fighting Petrobras [or other extractive companies] and the communities of Aotearoa threatened by fossil fuel exploration projects.
PETROBRAS AND THE CO2LONISATION OF AOTEAROA
On the 1^st June 2010, just 42 days after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and 44 days before the well was capped, Brazilian company Petrobras was awarded by The New Zealand Government a five year exploratory license for oil and gas in the Raukumara Basin, situated in the East Cape / Bay of Plenty region of the North Island of Aotearoa (New Zealand). The license starts from a mere 4 kilometres offshore and goes out to 110 km. The granted permit area is 12,330 sq km. The New Zealand government sees just 6% of the profit Petrobras makes. If the project goes ahead, Petrobras will bring in their own workforce and maybe offer a few short term jobs.
The area for exploration is the traditional fishing grounds of indigenous peoples from the tribes and sub-tribes of Te Whānau-a-Apanui and Ngāti Porou. There was no prior consultation with these communities whatsoever.
The New Zealand National Party was elected in 2008 to lead a coalition government that has been committed to opening up the land and sea around the country for oil, gas and other minerals extraction in the interests of national economic development. A policy to mine pristine conservation lands was abandoned in 2010 when huge public opposition, supported by many environmental organisations, expressed widespread opposition to the plan, however, the areas remaining open to exploitation cover an area 42 times greater than that which is currently being mined, across most of Aotearoa.
A visit from a vessel contracted to Petrobras is expected to arrive off the East Cape on the weekend of the 2^nd-3^rd of April 2011. In response to a call to oppose deep sea oil drilling from East Cape iwi (tribe) Te Whanau a Apanui, a flotilla of ships is to set sail from Auckland, for the East Cape to confront the exploration vessel. People are being asked to light fires on the beaches and hui (meetings) are being called along the coast to mobilise the communities on land.
BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill superimposed on to the Raukumera permit zone
LOCAL IMPACTS
The Raukumara Basin sits on a major and active fault line. In a high seismic activity area such as the Raukumara Basin there is an extremely high possibility that there would be damage to any sub-sea installations (wells, pipe lines) in the probable event of an earth quake. The exploration area regularly experiences +4 or +5 magnitude quakes and lies on the same faultline as the one that recently devastated the South Island city of Christchurch.
The massive oil and gas spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which took three months to cap and spilled millions of barrels of oil, was an exploratory drill. The depth of the exploratory drill
in the Gulf of Mexico was 1500 metres. In the Raukumara Basin proposed depths range from 1500 metres to 3000 metres, yet NZ has almost no capacity to deal with a major spill and has no adequate or enforceable means of compensation. It is entirely unknown what impacts the 240db sonic booms shot from the exploration vessel during the 2d seismic exploration phase will have on aquatic life, particularly regarding marine mammals. The area is at the heart of a well documented whale migration route.
The region’s history revolves around the moana (sea) and the Iwi (Maori tribes) have many stories that speak of the cultural and spiritual significance of the sea. It holds some of the most central and important history of the iwi threatened by Petrobras’s search for hydrocarbons and profit on behalf of its shareholders.
For as long as the Maori communities of the East Cape can remember, their daily lives, tikanga (customs) and whakapapa (ancestry) have been connected to the sea. “The sea is forever in our lives” says coastal community member Ora Barlow of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui.
The CO2lonisation of Aotearoa

PETROBRAS THE GIANT
Petrobras has recently become the third biggest petroleum company in the world after implementing the largest share offer in the history of capitalism, specifically to raise funds for offshore oil exploration at a time when the world stands on the brink of runaway climate change and global oil reserves are peaking. Increasingly dan
gerous extraction projects are becoming more commonplace in an industry desperate to maintain its grip on the world’s energy systems. As a result, communities most directly affected by the exploitation of fossil fuel reserves are facing unprecedented levels of risk as these companies target what they call ‘unconventional’ fossil fuel reserves.
The New Zealand government has given permission to a foreign company, with an abhorrent social and environmental record the permission to threaten these coastal communities without any prior consultation whatsoever. An oil spill will mean nothing less than cultural genocide for a region that has managed to maintain a great deal of its traditionally cared for land and traditional knowledge of environmental management against all odds. Toka Tū Moana is their renowned phrase (whakatauakii) that declares steadfastness and resilience, standing firm and unshakeable, despite adversity. A great deal of effort is made within these communities to maintain knowledge of traditional environmental management and many programmes are underway to transition these communities back towards states of true community resilience. “Our tipuna (ancestors) practised sustainable living, we can do it too, they relied on whanaungatanga (collective living), and so do we.” – Ani Pahuru-Huriwai, Ngati Porou
However, an oil spill, and climate change itself may well wipe out the entire coastal community’s ability to maintain whatever level of traditional food sovereignty and self sufficiency they have left.
COMMUNITY REACTION

When the government announced their awarding of this permit to Petrobras, local Maori symbolised their opposition to the plans of Petrobras and the New Zealand government by lighting fires along their coastline. Ms Pahuru-Huriwai of Ngati Porou (one of the closest communities to the permit area) said. “This is the way we all informed each other, signalled each other way back – through fire. In this case we’re saying that it’s Petrobras that we’re all against.”.“It’s a serious threat to us and our kapata kai (food cupboard). It’s not just a Maori thing either – we think every Kiwi (New Zealander) has an issue with it. Everyone who is scared of what’s happening, they need to be here.”
Several months later and with no sign of Petrobras or the New Zealand government changing their plans, a music festival under the banner of ‘Stop The Drilling!’ was held in Te Kaha, a region adjacent to the permit area. One and a half thousand people showed up to show their support, dwarfing the resident population of that particular tribal
area. Crowds shouted ‘Stop the Drilling!!’ and spoke of defending their community from attack by sea.
Petrobras have approached local runanga (tribal leaders) and have entered into a process of communication with them. The runanga have communicated to Petrobras the position of the communities that no consent will be given to Petrobras to follow through with the project. Preparations have been made by Iwi leadership to apply for a judicial review of the decision made to grant the permit, and for communication with the United Nations while local Maori have, with support from environmentalists, fishermen and others, established the Ahi Ka Action Group to campaign for a revocation of the permit and a decision not to explore the area.
The Ahi Ka Action Group have distributed 20,000 flyers to raise public awareness of the situation, they have established a basic website and have lobbied local authorities to throw their weight behind efforts to prevent exploration and extraction activities in the permit area. The group has been linking up with individuals and groups in other parts of Aotearoa and overseas who are under threat from mining in their area. A national networking and information sharing website is under development at: www.nodrilling.org.nz

Petrobras has contracted a vessel to undertake the first stage of seismic testing in the Raukumara permit area and this work is due to start in March 2011.

A MOVEMENT IS FORMING

With such a massive proportion of land and sea being opened up to mining companies, communities across the country are getting ready to defend themselves.
On the West coast of the North Island communities of Taranaki are also under attack from land and sea with 13 new onshore/coastal permits and 15 new offshore permits being handed out by the government. Parihaka, a settlement of huge cultural and historical significance which In the 1870s and 1880s became the centre of a major campaign of non-violent resistance to European occupation of confiscated land in the area is already surrounded by oil and gas exploration projects and is now facing even more. The company Greymouth Petroleum is focussing on northern to central Taranaki while companies Kea Petroleum, TAG Oil, Green Gate, L&M Energy and Todd Energy are targeting the rest of inland eastern and southern Taranaki. There is a great deal of concern surrounding the increased use of hydraulic fracturing to access oil and gas reserves in this area, a highly dangerous extraction process recently banned in some places in of the United States.
Down South, government-owned Solid Energy and other coal companies want to mine massive quantities of lignite, a low-quality brown coal, that lies under Southland farmland. They plan to turn it into briquettes, urea fertiliser, and synthetic diesel. At least 6.2 billion tonnes of lignite is technically and economically recoverable in 10 major deposits in Otago and Southland. The in-ground lignite resource is approximately 11 billion tonnes. A wide range of local and national groups are gearing up to stop these developments.

Up North, permits for a wide range of minerals, including gold are spurring communities into defensive action and communities are linking up with one another and a national level movement is coalescing to stop the drilling across the country.

CLIMATE JUSTICE

Of course, this isn’t exactly a new phenomenon, Petrobras and the fossil fuel industry in general has a long and bloody history of threatening the very existence of communities in order to access fossil fuel reserves. “it’s an international issue and we have to make sure our local support is strong and then globalise” – Ora Barlow, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui

While politicians fiddle around in flailing international negotiations to halt runaway climate change, their hands tied behind their backs by the most powerful consortium of companies the world has ever known, these communities, and others directly impacted by the root causes and impacts of the climate crisis are successfully standing together and defeating them in their own back yards.
“We must stand united with other hapu, other iwi, other New Zealanders who care about the environment. We must keep pressure on our government to wake up and show some long-term leadership, make Aotearoa a Renewable Energy Country, no longer reliant on Fossil Fuels like oil & gas, that the human race is quickly exhausting. We are a nuclear free country; we need to be a fossil fuel free country too!” – Ani Pahuru-Huriwai, Ngati Porou

“We must support those who carry this kaupapa for us to the international stage. We must unite with other indigenous peoples and learn from their experiences.” – Ani Pahuru-Huriwai, Ngati Porou
As the case of the BP oil spill and those lower income communities hit hardest by hurricane Katrina illustrates, the communities most vulnerable to environmental destruction are also those most
susceptible to the climate crises. Those hit first and worst are most often the least responsible for the crisis yet are actively leading the fight against major climate polluters. They require globalised support and solidarity in defending their answers to an ecological crisis which they have not caused or reaped untold profits from.

Te Whanau a Apanui spokeswoman Dayle Takutimu has called on the whole country to support their stand, at a time when seismic surveying by Brazilian oil giant Petrobras is expected to begin off the Cape.

“We are resolute in our defence of our ancestral lands and waters from the destructive practice of deep sea oil drilling. This is an issue for all peoples of New Zealand and we call on those who support our opposition to stand with us in defence of what we all treasure,” she says.

Links
Flotilla Heeds Iwi’s Call To Stop Deep Sea Oil
stopdeepseaoil.org.nz
nodrilling.wordpress.com
climate justice taranaki
Withoutyourwalls – climate justice infoshop
Facebook group : Stop the Drilling on our East Coast
Contact : climatejusticeaotearoa@riseup.net for global climate justice movement related contact on the situation

No Disrespect! Say No in Plural to the 'say no to burqas' Mural

2011-04-06T14:22:00.000+10:00

Come to an exhibition to create opposition and alternatives to the 'say no to burqas' mural in Newtown: a visual, aural and sensory display of creative dissent!

Friday 6th of May, 6pm: Opening night, featuring music and performances including Rimi aka Soul Beats
Saturday 7th of May, 2pm: Panel discussion on race, difference, feminism and the burqa in Sydney and perfomance by Fear of a Brown Planet

Newtown Neighbourhood House, Opposite the Newtown Train Station
No Disrespect is collaboratively hosted by the Justice and Arts Network, Muslim Youth of Sydney and Cross Border Sydney

Contact: crossborder.sydney@gmail.com
Find us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=205726962787413

NIPS welcomes abandonment of patent application involving SI samples

2011-04-06T14:10:00.000+10:00

The Network of the Indigenous Peoples-Solomons (NIPS) welcomes the abandonment of a US patent application that uses genetic samples from Solomon Islanders, in a case that raises major ethical questions.

According to the USPTO’s Patent Application Information Retrieval system, US based lawyers representing Taiwanese scientist, Dr. Ko Ying-Chin filed an express abandonment application on April 01st, 2011 at 2:53pm EDT for the patent application number US20100248253.

The express abandonment was subsequently processed by the USPTO on April 4th, 2011 and now the status of the US patent application is listed as “expressly abandoned (during examination).”
Effectively, the patent application is now stopped. This patent application entitled “Method and Kit for Assessing Risk of Gout and Hyperuricemia,” uses samples from 192 Solomon Islanders,
collected at the National Referral Hospital and two clinics in Guadalcanal Province during a research trip led by Dr. Ko in September 2006.

Dr. Ko and his colleagues only abandoned the patent application after NIPS, along with other non-governmental organizations in the Solomon Islands, began to publicly challenge it. The basis of this challenge was Dr. Ko’s failure to obtain proper informed consent from the blood donors for such commercialization.

The informed consent given by blood donors in September 2006 was limited to medical research uses, and contained no mention of using the samples for patenting and other commercial purposes.

NIPS emphasizes the patent application which used the blood samples from unknowing indigenous Solomon Islanders clearly involved serious ethicalbreaches on the part of the Taiwanese medical researcher and three of his colleagues who were listed as patent applicants.

This Non-Government Organization says whilst it welcomes the abandonment, it is still eager to receive a reply from Dr. Ko on questions that need be answered including whether any cell lines of the Solomon Islanders were immortalized, and if any samples were shared with
other researchers or institutions in Taiwan and abroad.

The NIPS adds that it further welcomes Dr Ko’s response in mid-March – communicated through the Embassy of Taiwan in Honiara - where he states, he samples will be repatriated to the Solomon Islands.
The NIPS also hopes all the samples will be repatriated soon, including any immortalized cell lines. Furthermore, given the severity of the ethical breeches and violations of Solomon Islanders’ rights, the NIPS considers it critical that Ko respect a ban on any further publications and patent applications that use data from the indigenous blood samples from Solomon Islanders.

The NIPS states it gave a letter to Taiwanese officials during a March 31 2011 meeting at the Taiwanese Embassy in Honiara. This letter discussed pressing issues related to the patent application, including the abandonment of the application.

NIPS President, Mr Donald Marahare, Coordinator Graham Vahia and officer Meffrey Poenjili look forward to cooperating with the ROC Embassy’s First Secretary Mr Thomas Tsai, who will be mediating between responsible authorities in Taiwan and Honiara on this matter.

NIPS reiterate that the Solomon Islands Government must recognise the significance of this case and come up with legal instruments to safeguard its own indigenous citizens from any future biopiracy of human genetic materials and biological resources.

“The 1995 successful blocking of a patent application using genetic materials from Indigenous Solomon Islanders filed for patent application by the US Government’s National Institute of Health coupled with this episode involving Taiwanese researchers acquiring genetic materials from
Solomon Islanders, are timely wake-up call to take effective measures to protect Indigenous Solomon Islanders from any future repeat of genetic materials biopiracy.”

NIPS also acknowledges the cooperation it received from the Solomon Islands Research and Ethical Committee, the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Mark Munsterhjelm from the University of Windsor in Canada, Ms Neth Dano of the ETC Group, Mr Fiu Elisara of Samoa and all the other resourceful individuals who have assisted with this matter.

ENDS////

OPERATION 8 - Trailer

2011-03-31T17:56:00.002+11:00

On October 15, 2007 activists around New Zealand woke to guns in their faces. Black-clad police smashed down doors, dragging families out onto roads and detaining some without food or water. In the village of Ruatoki, helicopters hovered while locals were stopped at roadblocks. Operation 8 involved 18 months of invasive surveillance of Maori sovereignty and peace activists accused of attending terrorist training camps in the Urewera ranges -- homeland of the Tuhoe people. Operation 8 asks why and how the raids took place. How did the War on Terror become a global witch-hunt of political dissenters reaching even to the South Pacific?

Screening soon at The World Cinema Showcase

The Day the Raids Came

Stories of survival and resistance to the state terror raids

On October 15th, 2007 an estimated 300 police raided houses all over Aotearoa New Zealand and arrested people based on warrants issued under the Terrorism Suppression Act. Lives were turned upside down as the police searched for evidence of ‘terrorism.’ This book is a collection of oral history interviews of people affected by those raids and the aftermath: defendants, friends, family, supporters and other people subject to the state’s coercive powers on that day.

The case is the first ever attempted use of the Terrorism Suppression Act, a piece of legislation enacted in response to the 9/11 events in New York and Washington DC. The terrorism charges were not brought, but the people arrested continue to face a long journey to freedom as the state seeks to punish political activists and to reinforce the status quo. http://www.rebelpress.org.nz/publications/day-raids-came

http://www.october15thsolidarity.info/

Tainui supports privately managed prisons

2011-03-30T22:56:00.002+11:00

What a bunch of Maori $ellouts. Serco are serial human rights abusers. Clearly Tuku has no scruples or ethics going into business with dogs like Serco. This is NOT a gain for Maori, this is a money making opportunity for Serco & Tainui Inc. It ushers in the expansion of the prison industrial complex in Aotearoa.

Is it to much to ask Maori commentators & the Maori media need to stop being so sycophantic and start asking some hard questions and start giving some rigorous analysis like . I dont recall one article from a Maori journalist questioning the corporate iwi support for the privitisation of prisons, when the excesses and human rights abuses of the transnationals the want to go into joint partnership with is easy to find.

See Also :

SERCO Sharples Corporate Kupapa

As more and more Western governments use the services of Serco – the British multinational with an unhealthy hold on prisons and detention centres – it’s worth remembering the gross human rights abuses under its watch http://antonyloewenstein.com/tag/serco/

Serco Rap Sheet:

• Serco staff bullied & inappropriately used excessive violence to restrain a mentally ill 14yo boy, lead to his suicide -- the youngest UK death in custody, in a Serco-run detention... facility

• Serco staff refused to address pleas for medical assistance of a meningitis-affected prisoner for four days, dismissing it saying he was “at it” again and “he was probably suffering from the flu and was only looking for tablets”, despite knowing the potential consequences of this in light of his medical history (he had previously slipped into a coma previously from the illness prior to his prison term). Guards told him to take Panadol, their inaction and stalling resulted in his death. He had previously lodged a complaint about his lack of access to medical care for his condition in the Serco centre

• Kilmarnock, the only privatised prison run by Serco in Scotland, has a higher than the national average number of deaths in custody

• High levels of self-harm & suicide in Serco-run centres. Australia’s detention facilities have seen a fourfold increase in self-harm rates in the past year, coinciding with the awarding of Serco’s contract to run Australia’s facilities. Self-harm behaviour has “spread among adolescents” according to Dr. Louise Newman, head of the Detention Health Advisory Group

• People in Serco facilities in the UK are sleeping in toilets to deal with overcrowding, with a “worrying” deterioration in access to GPs and health care and increases in violence and self-harm, following an unannounced visit by independent UK chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers

• ‘Squalid’ conditions with ‘institutional meanness’ with Serco denying detainees pillows and toilet seats – Owers

• Suicide attempt and subsequent death of asylum seeker detained at Serco-run UK Colbrook Immigration Reception Centre. This followed obfuscation from Serco staff & the denial of help for his ongoing mental illness, including the removal of his anti-depressants upon his arrival in detention during a high at risk time for his mental stability

• Similarities between desperate protests in Serco-run immigration centres and prisons in UK and Australia. In the past six months in Australia, we have seen recurring hunger strikes at Darwin and Villawood IDC, public protests involving self-harm at Villawood, and regular breakouts at Darwin IDC.

• A death in custody at Serco-run Curtin IDC due to unspecified ‘health condition’ after being found unconscious, unofficially reported to be a heart attack from a congenital past condition. This raises questions as to the provision of health care at Curtin – if staff were aware of his apparent condition, what measures were taken to prevent an incident like this occurring? If they were taken, why did they not prevent his death?

• The suicide of detainee at Villawood IDC followed Serco staff dismissing attempts from refugee advocates becoming involved in dissuading the detainee from the roof. This included a Serco staff member hanging up on a phone call from a concerned friend. The detainee jumped to his death a short time later. Following his death, Serco staff cancelled a previously planned memorial service for the deceased by detainees at midnight the morning of the service. No reason was given for this.

• The next day, a group of asylum seekers took to the roof while a hunger strike continued inside Villawood. After they publicly self-harmed and were denied water and food until their return to the ground a day and a half later, a second group of detainees took to the roof. A member of this group also self-harmed, slipping into unconsciousness. Following their return to the ground, their advocate has said Serco staff have punished their protest with separation detention.

• Allegations of sexual abuse of children at Serco-run Leonora Alternative Place of Detention, with Serco staff unable to prevent the alleged abuse occurring.

• Disturbing sexualisation of children in UK Serco immigration detention centres: “One parent spontaneously complained that he had found his daughter in the [UK Yarl’s Wood Immigration Detention] centre without any clothes on. His child explained that she had been encouraged to undress and play “sex games” instigated by another detained child. This father felt that there was inadequate supervision of the children within the center and after this incident he no longer allowed his children to play with the other children. Another mother spontaneously commented on the sexualized behavior of children within the center.”

• Illness outbreaks of viruses and skin-based diseases affecting children in overcrowded UK Serco immigration detention centres

• Serco combines violent prisoner populations with asylum seekers, resulting in “dangerous” environments (Owers) at UK immigration detention centres

• Violent force from Serco staff ‘high’ (Owers) at UK’s Colnbrook IDC

• Serco use separation detention for long periods to manage difficult detainees in UK immigration detention, including separating mothers from children

• Quality and quantity for meaningful education and training for detainees ‘insufficient’ (Owers) for long periods in UK immigration detention facilities

• Excessive control & violent restraints used by Serco staff at UK Yarl’s Wood IDC on women and children. Generally aggressive and rude temperament of staff disrespectful of detainee human dignity

• Yarl’s Wood IDC women detainees have taken Serco to the High Court in March 2010, questioning their inhumane treatment from guards. Some have stripped naked to protest “being treated like animals”

• On 8 February 2010, their peaceful protest was met by attacks from Serco staff and forced confinement in a locked corridor without access to water, food or medication

• Detainee allegations of ongoing racist abuse from Serco staff in UK IDCs

• Requests for medical assistance and welfare of children ignored, denied and/or substantially delayed by Serco staff at Yarl’s Wood IDC

• Meetings between government agencies and Serco to consider the implications for women and children’s welfare of prolonged detention focused on public relations management and potential counter-legal concerns, instead of ongoing independent accountability for detainee health and dignity

• Serco continues to refuse to be interviewed on its activities in running Australia’s immigration detention facilities. Why?

References:

A. Owers, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons, ‘COLNBROOK IMMIGRATION REMOVAL CENTRE – SIGNIFICANTLY LESS SAFE’, Press Release, November 2007, <http://www.justice.gov.uk/inspectorates/hmi-prisons/docs/colnbrook_pn-rps.pdf>

M. Wainwright, ‘Report into death of boy, 14, calls for reform of youth custody’, The Guardian, September 3, 2007, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/sep/03/ukcrime.prisonsandprobation/print>.

Associated Press, “New inquest ordered into teenage boy's death in custody”, The Guardian, 22 January 2009, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jan/22/youngpeople-deathsincustody/print>.

A. Lorek, K. Ehntholt, A. Nesbitt, E. Wey, C. Githinji, E. Rossor, R. Wickramasinghe, ‘The mental and physical health difficulties of children held within a British immigration detention center: A pilot study’, Child Abuse and Neglect, vol. 33, 2009, pp. 573-585 <http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/resources/documents/Campaigns/19432_full.pdf>

K. Smith, “Inmate’s pleas for aid overlooked four days before death”, The Sunday Herald (Scotland), July 20, 2008, <http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2403695.0.inmates_pleas_for_aid_overlooked_four_days_before_death.php>S. Gaines, “Inmates sleep in toilets at overcrowded prison”, Sunday Guardian, July 22, 2008, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jul/22/doncaster.prison/print>Institute of Race Relations, “Kenny Peter's inquest points to asylum failures”, 5 October 2006, <http://www.irr.org.uk/2006/october/ha000013.html>E. Dugan, ‘Mothers detained in immigration centre hold 'naked' protest’, The Telegraph, April 11, 2008, <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mothers-detained-in-immigration-centre-hold-naked-protest-807802.html>Y. Narushima, ‘Self-harm rates increase fourfold’, The Age, October 4, 2010, <http://www.theage.com.au/national/selfharm-rates-increase-fourfold-20101003-162r8.html>L. Marshall, ‘Detained refugee dies in Perth hospital’, 31 August 2010, Independent Media Centre Australia, <http://indymedia.org.au/2010/08/31/detainee-dies-at-curtin-detention-centre>

Te Whanau Apanui Tukino! Stop deep-sea oil drilling

2011-03-28T12:23:00.001+11:00

"This is a hugely important protest. It draws the links between the Crown Minerals Act, the Resource Management Act and the new Takutai Moana Act to show how devastating the confiscation of rights for Maori is by virtue of the Maori Party sell out."

Tukino! Stop deep-sea oil drilling

2011-03-27T20:44:00.000+11:00

Flotilla gathers for Petrobras protest

2011-03-26T13:55:00.000+11:00

Te Whanau a Apanui has put out the call for a water-borne protest against Brazilian oil giant Petrobras's plans to prospect in the Raukumara basin.

Spokesperson Dayle Takitimu says vessels with links to the Nuclear Free Flotilla, Greenpeace, Forest and Bird, and Coromandel Watchdog are expected to be part of a flotilla leaving Auckland for Cape Runaway on Sunday in the hope of encountering Petrobras survey boats.

She says unlike some other iwi, Te Whanau a Apanui isn't interested in deals with miners.

“It's not about the money or greater ability to invest or joint venture with these companies. Whanau a Apanui just don’t want this activity occurring on our back doorstep when there is so much risk involved,” Ms Takitimu says.

She says all New Zealand is under-threat if there is an oil spill from the drilling.

Flotilla heeds iwi’s call to stop deep sea oil

Friday, 25 March 2011, 2:20 pm
Press Release: Greenpeace New Zealand

Flotilla heeds iwi’s call to stop deep sea oil

Auckland, 23 March 2011: In response to a call to oppose deep sea oil drilling from East Cape iwi Te Whanau a Apanui, a flotilla of ships is to set sail from Auckland, for the East Cape, this Sunday.
Te Whanau a Apanui today redoubled their call for nation wide support in their opposition to deep sea oil exploration and drilling in the Raukumara Basin, East of their tribal lands off the spectacular East Cape of the North Island of New Zealand.

A number of groups have already committed to support the cause, including the Nuclear Free Flotilla, who intend to sail from Auckland this Sunday in protest.

Along with the Flotilla members, Greenpeace, Forest and Bird, anti-mining group Coromandel Watchdog, The Coal Action Network (CAN) and climate action group 350 Aotearoa have all promised their support. All are united in opposition to the Government’s current sell off of rights to drill for deep sea oil around New Zealand’s coast.

Te Whanau a Apanui spokeswoman Dayle Takitimu called on the whole country to support their stand, at a time when seismic surveying by Brazilian oil giant Petrobras is expected to begin off the Cape.
“We are resolute in our defence of our ancestral lands and waters from the destructive practice of deep sea oil drilling. This is an issue for all peoples of New Zealand and we call on those who support our opposition to stand with us in defence of what we all treasure,” she says.

As cheap, easily accessible oil supplies run out, the oil industry is opening up new frontiers in its global search for oil reserves. This includes the Arctic, and the areas of seabed the Government is selling off around New Zealand.

As BP’s Gulf of Mexico spill shows, deep sea oil drilling brings with it the very real risk of disaster. The Deepwater Horizon was working in 1500 metres of water. But depths in the Raukumara Basin, where Petrobras will be working, go as deep as 3000 metres.

“No one wants to see oil washing up on our beaches. A drastic spill would cost the New Zealand economy billions, and do enormous damage to our tourism and fishing industries, and our international reputation,” says Greenpeace Climate spokesman Steve Abel.

Daniel Mares, from the Nuclear-Free Flotilla, says: “Climate change, driven by fossil fuels like oil, is comparable to the nuclear threat in terms of its potential to drastically harm the quality and viability of life on Earth.”

Kevin Hackwell, from Forest & Bird, says: “We are very concerned at the potential damage to our marine wildlife of a Gulf of Mexico type oil spill, and this risk is all the more likely given that we do not have a robust regulatory framework around deep sea oil exploration and drilling.”

Aaron Packard of 350 Aotearoa commented that: “350 Aotearoa is clear that reducing emissions that result from fossil fuels, will not happen by drilling up more fossil fuels. Our continued ignoring of this will mean that the positive legacy we wish to leave will not be possible, and that our accruing carbon debt will continue to be passed onto our youngest citizens, and those yet to come."

The Government’s push to open up New Zealand to foreign oil companies was announced under the ‘Petroleum Action Plan’ in 2010, as part of a package of fossil fuel-based economic strategies that included removing ‘Schedule 4’ protection to parts of the conservation estate. Opposition to this culminated in a massive public demonstration in Auckland in May 2010, after which those plans were dropped.

A public send-off event will be held on the western side of Princes Wharf, downtown Auckland, to farewell the Stop Deep Sea Oil Flotilla on its journey to Cape Runaway (East Cape), on Sunday March 27, at 12.30 pm. Well wishers are invited to turn out in boats, or on foot, to support the send off at that time. All groups will meet at Cape Runaway on April the 2nd.

The public can also help ‘stop deep sea oil’ by going to: www.stopdeepseaoil.org.nz

Youth declaration a promise to fight on for the Takutai Moana

2011-03-24T19:54:00.001+11:00

We object to the Political Party named “The Maori Party” within the New Zealand Government, voting in support of the legislation named “The Marine and Coastal Area (Takutaimoana) Bill.

This legislation violates and breaches Maori Rights embedded in the treaty named “Te Tiriti O Waitangi” and the Declaration named “He Whakaputanga o nga Rangatira o Niu Tireni”.

We also object to the Maori Party,s continuation of support to this legislation.

Therefore,we would like to state Maori Party’s vote of support for the Marine and Coastal Area Bill DOES NOT represent our support or tautoko.

We request that the Political Party named the Maori Party cease immediately their continuation of support of the “Marine and Coastal Area(Takutaimoana) Bill, as it continues to violate and breach “Te Tiriti O Waitangi”.

For the asaid reasons given above

We request that Assent is NOT GIVEN to the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutaimoana) Bill by the Governor General of New Zealand.

Petition Here

Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill - Third Reading - Part 13

2011-03-24T19:34:00.000+11:00

Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill - Third Reading - Part 5

2011-03-24T19:32:00.000+11:00

The Tall Man killed Mulrunji for a Song

2011-03-24T16:04:00.000+11:00

Lake Tyers Mission - Blockade Benefit

2011-03-23T18:49:00.000+11:00

Friday 25th March at 7:30pm

Sahara Nights

124 Lygon St (near Glenlyon Rd)

Lake Tyers Aboriginal Mission is being TAKEN BACK by the people. No more government steamrolling. No more being dictated to by bureaucrats. No more racism.

This is a benefit for the struggle. Some of the women from the blockade will be in town and can fill you in on the situation on the ground. Won't read about it in the newspaper!

Sahara Nights is a beautiful, chill Egyptian restaurant with awesome food, a great sound system, and a stupidly large collection of shishas (hookahs). Up the top of Lygon St, near Glenlyon Road.

Come one, come all.

Musicians (so far...)

Justin Love - reggae/soul
Jake Hapeta from Kia Kaha
Zessie Lloyd
DJ Dustyn Tonks
DJ Pyro (Jeff Pyrotek)

What's going on:
19:30 - Dinner, Shishas, info and mingle
21:30 - Speakers from the Blockade
22:00 - Music starts
23:30 - Let's boogie
01:00 - Get outta here already!

Entry = $10. Includes first drink at the bar.

Brought 2 U by Lake Tyres Solidarity

Ka pu te ruha ka hao te rangatahi !

2011-03-23T16:29:00.002+11:00

pics thanks 2 tillnet

Ko nga rangatahi nga rangatira mo apopo

2011-03-22T21:07:00.000+11:00

And our Rangatahi are those that lay down the instruments of theft... The New Zealand Flag, The Maori Party Flag, the Takutaimoana Act, the Marine and Coastal Area Bill. These Rangatahi have been on the march since it left Te Hapua. They have my greatest respect. Annette Sykes

Dr Rawiri Taonui talks about the Taku Tai Moana Bill

2011-03-22T21:01:00.000+11:00

‎"This is a modern day confiscation"

Kaipara and Auckland elders demand Maori Party return taonga

2011-03-22T20:52:00.000+11:00

Gas 'fracking' alarm sounded

2011-03-22T09:11:00.000+11:00

CAMERON BURNELL/Taranaki Daily News

NOT IN OUR BACKYARD: Environmental activists and Climate Justice Taranaki organisers Emily Bailey and Urs Signer on farmland in coastal Taranaki which they believe is being surveyed for gas and oil exploration.

Taranaki climate change activists are calling for residents to stand up against the region's growing oil and gas industry.

Parihaka residents Emily Bailey and Urs Signer have organised a public meeting in Okato tonight to discuss the issue.

The pair are part of the group Climate Justice Taranaki, which is concerned about the effect a new drilling technique called "fracking" is having on waterways and farmland.

An American documentary has suggested fracking involves injecting millions of gallons of water and sand, and hundreds of proprietary chemicals under high pressure into a well to allow gas to flow more freely.

Mr Signer said a survey company contracted by Todd Energy had started seismic surveying in recent weeks along the coast between Okato and Rahotu.

The Taranaki Daily News sought comment from Todd Energy on the issue but the firm had not responded last night.

"With 30 new oil and gas exploration permits for Taranaki, Maritime NZ says we now live in the most likely place for a major oil spill in NZ, threatening wildlife, kaimoana and our own beaches," Ms Bailey said.

She said some landowners were stopping the survey by blocking access to their land, and that the group hoped the meeting would encourage more people to do so.

"If we can stop the surveying now they may struggle to get drilling permits and we can stop the rigs being put up around us."

There were contradictory accounts from workers and the Government about what depths were being drilled at, she said.

"We're worried the oil companies are not releasing all the information about what chemicals they use, as well."

Mr Signer said that in the United States most of the research about the effects of the gas industry had been done by the companies themselves, and there seemed to have been little analysis completed in New Zealand.

"Most of what the Taranaki Regional Council has looked at is what is coming out, such as the drilling waste, but we're concerned with the chemicals that are going in with fracking. There's a mix of about 600 chemicals," he said.

He believes gas companies should give more information about what they are doing and what research they have completed.

The Climate Justice Taranaki public meeting is tonight at Hempton Hall in Okato at 7pm

Source

Blockade continues over Aboriginal land dispute

2011-03-21T13:23:00.000+11:00

George Galloway on Wests Libya intervention

2011-03-21T07:55:00.000+11:00

Hikoi 2011 update

2011-03-19T19:46:00.000+11:00

Sunday 19 March 2011

8.30 am Depart Waipatu Marae, march to Hastings Library

11.00 am Arrive Papaioea, Palmerston North

4.30 pm Depart for Motuiti Marae, SH1, Foxton

...5.00 pm Arrive Foxton

Complaint regarding police brutality shut without notice

2011-03-19T12:57:00.000+11:00

Action Alert Demo Called By Traditional Owners Victoria

2011-03-18T08:57:00.001+11:00

THE GREATEST ATTACK ON TRADITIONAL OWNERS RIGHTS WILL BE DONE BY THE

VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT ON MONDAY 9.00AM 21 MARCH 2011 THE FEDERAL COURT

DIRECTIONS HEARING FOR ALL NATIVE TITLE CLAIMS HEARING WILLIAM/LATROBE

STREET CBD MELBOURNE. BLACK PEOPLE GETTING SCREWD AGAIN.

..SPREAD THE WORD, DEMO OUT THE FRONT...8.30AM

Takutai Moana Bill Hikoi In Tauranga (17-03-11)

2011-03-18T08:56:00.000+11:00

Hikoi opposing Takutai Moana Bill will continue no matter what!

2011-03-17T13:20:00.000+11:00

Hikoi Schedule for tomorrow: FRIDAY 18th MARCH

2011-03-17T10:06:00.000+11:00

Hikoi Schedule for tomorrow: FRIDAY 18th MARCH

9.30 am arrive at Whakaue ki Maketu marae, Maketu rd, Maketu

10.45 am Depart for Rotorua CBD

11.30 am arrive carpark Rotorua central mall Amohau st

...12.00 noon Commence Hikoi

2.30 pm Depart for marae (TBC)

7.00pm Wananga

contact Dorothy Raroa : 021 243 2174

2011 Hikoi Opposing Marine and Coastal Bill

2011-03-15T16:24:00.000+11:00

14 of March 2011, a Hikoi Started fropm Te Rerenga Wairua (Cape Reinga) to oppose the Marine and Coastal (Takutai Moana) Bill.

a Link to the legislation

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2010/0201/latest/DLM3213131.html
Lead with the whakaro to do what is right, the Hikoi will reach Parliaments Door in the coming week.

Hikoi opposing Takutai Moana Bill begins in Cape Reinga

2011-03-15T09:44:00.000+11:00

MARCH TOWARDS TRUTH AND JUSTICE OPPOSE the Marine and Coastal Area Bill

2011-03-14T19:41:00.000+11:00

The NZ Government is making changes to the Foreshore and Seabed Act and renamed it the new Marine and Coastal Area Bill.

What is the Marine and Coastal Area Bill?

Basically it’s about our beaches, our ocean and our seas.

The place where we enjoy and spend time with our friends and family.
The place we teach our children how to swim or build their first sandcastle.
The place we enjoy a game of cricket or simply just throwing a rugby ball around.
The place we gather seafood for family or community occasions
The place we say I do as we celebrate our love for each other
The place we admire the sea views of nature’s beauty
The place we walk, we jog with our dogs, we skate, we run and scroll baby in pram along the seaside footpath feeling the sea breeze as we go about our daily lives.

Who created this Marine and Coastal Area Bill?

This Bill is created by NZ Government for NZ Government, always creating laws for their own needs and not the needs of our nation and people who live and visit our beautiful country.

Why the Government wants to make this Bill legal is...?

Simply MONEY, that’s the NZ Governments number one focus, MONEY.
Money cannot bring back our love ones
Money cannot buy us happiness
Money cannot build our nation
Money cannot provide us sea life resources

What the NZ Government intend to use this Bill for?

To mine on our beautiful beaches, simply means to dig out all our natural resources out of our ocean.
To oil drill in our harbours, simply means more pollution and no more fish.
To privatise our shorelines and sell it off to overstate buyers, simply means no public access to our beaches.

What are the dangers of this Bill?

Death road for Maori Party and all Parties who support this Bill.

The NZ Government want to make this Bill legal in the next couple of days, so I am going to MARCH AGAINST THIS BILL, starting 6am from Cape Reinga 14th Monday March 2011, going through to Wellington arriving at Parliament Buildings in due time. If you have great love for our ocean, our environment, our country, our people, our future, you are most welcome to join me on this journey as we March together TO OPPOSE THIS MARINE AND COASTAL AREA BILL

If you want to know more on this issue or want to know where we will be in the next couple of days, you can txt me directly on my phone 0211778111

‘Bring your shoes, placards, banners, flags and most of all your love and support’

COMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOU!

NIPS urges withdrawal of US patent application

2011-03-14T19:03:00.000+11:00

President of the Network of the Indigenous Peoples-Solomons (NIPS) Mr Donald Marahare has urged the Solomon Islands Government to demand the withdrawal of a patent application in the US involving genetic samples collected from indigenous Solomon Islanders.

The genetic samples were collected by a Taiwanese researcher, Dr. Ying-chin Ko of Kaohsiung Medical University in September 2006. Dr. Ko and three colleagues filed the patent application in the US on June 10 2010.

Mr. Marahare says he believes the individuals who supplied the samples are not aware of the patent application and would have not consented to taking part had they known the research would be used in this way.

The samples from 192 Solomon Islanders used in Dr. Ko’s US patent application 20100248253 entitled "Method and Kit for Assessing Risk of Gout and Hyperuricemia," were collected at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara and two clinics in rural Guadalcanal province.
Mr Marahare adds that his organization strongly condemns such a deceitful act by Dr. Ko who has utilized the Taiwan-Solomon Islands diplomatic relationship for his personal gain and strongly recommends the Solomon Islands Government commence formalities to demand the immediate return of the samples.

The President of NIPS acknowledges his organization’s link with Mark Munsterhjelm of the University of Windsor in Canada, Neth Dano of the ETC Group in Philipines and Fiu Elisara of Samoa who alerted the NIPS about Dr. Ko’s application.

“Had we not been informed by Mr Munsterhjelm, Solomon Islands would not have the slightest idea of this application” said Mr. Marahare, who also demanded that, “such practice where Indigenous Solomon Islanders are used for commercial interests without obtaining their free, prior and full informed consent must be stopped.”

The Solomon Islands Research and Ethical Committee of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services earlier this week, has also strongly demanded Dr. Ko’s application be refused or quashed.
Meanwhile, a prominent Honiara lawyer requesting anonymity has called on the Solomon Islands Government to be ready to do more than simply requesting the US Patent and Trademark Office “quash or refuse” the patent application filed by Dr. Ko.

He said, “The government must be ready to bring about legal proceedings in the US to restrain relevant authorities from granting the patent. They have to back up requests with legal proceedings as requests is not enough.”

The Network of the Indigenous Peoples-Solomons (NIPS) is currently working to raise awareness and is demanding the immediate return of the samples taken by Dr. Ko back to Solomon Islands and to have the US Patent and Trademark Office disqualify this patent application.

Blockade on Road to Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust WILL CONTINUE

2011-03-11T22:47:00.000+11:00

PRESS RELEASE – FRIDAY MARCH 11, 2011

Blockade on Road to Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust WILL CONTINUE The BLOCKADE AT THE ENTRANCE OF LAKE TYERS ABORIGINAL TRUST TO STOP MANAGERS AND GOVERNMENT FROM ENTERING ABORIGINAL LAND WILL CONTINUE until our right to manage our own affairs and control our own destiny is recognized according to the UN Declaration on Indigenous peoples

On Tuesday evening Lake Tyers residents and shareholders met with representatives of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Aboriginal Affairs Victoria. They requested that the management and workers be allowed to come back to work or they would stop the funding.

We feel that we are being put down and threatened. We have no rights and want to exercise our right of self-determination according to the UN Declaration on Indigenous People which will enable us to control and own lives and destiny. Our elders fought for the land so that Aboriginal people at Lake Tyers could live without government control of our lives and live with dignity and respect.

Government whose policies on us have once again failed and are AGAIN dictating us. We the shareholders, residents and supporters of the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust request the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, the Honorable Jeanette Powell to STOP the control by the state government by removing the Administrator and handing control of our own affairs back to us. The interim committee will be reinstated to negotiate on our behalf to resolve this situation.

Contact: (E) latessa2006@yahoo.com

My Blood My People

2011-03-11T06:55:00.000+11:00

"My Blood My People" - Produced By Jason De Santolo, Directed by Martin Adams, Filmed By Murray Lui. Staring Maupower, Eastern Island Dancers : Joseph Passi, Richard Passi, Anthony Drummond, Western Island Dancers : Damien Fujii, Nasali Tamoy, Sergio Ahmat, Tanu Nona, cultural ambassardor : Gabriel Bani

Kaipara community and Iwi team up to oppose turbines in Kaipara

2011-03-08T22:02:00.000+11:00

Pacific should not be used as a testing ground

2011-03-01T20:46:00.000+11:00

Tuesday, 1 March 2011, 2:36 pm

Press Release: Pacific Network on Globalisation

Pacific should not be used as a testing ground

1 March 2011

Two campaign organizations, based in Fiji and Papua New Guinea, have joined forces to denounce plans for the Pacific to be used as the testing ground for deep-sea mining. ACT NOW! and the Pacific Network on Globalization say the Pacific region has already suffered the negative social and environmental impacts of industrial mining on land and should not take further risks with the marine environment. “Rather than allowing ourselves to be the testing ground for
multinational companies and foreign governments,

Pacific countries should focus on new approaches to our own development that are consistent with our lifestyle, history and social and political realities”, says Effrey Dademo, Program Manager with ACT NOW!

Nautilus Minerals has already been granted a license by the PNG government to develop the worldʼs first deep-sea mine and the European Union has announced plans to help 15 Pacific island countries to develop laws and policies to
facilitate such operations across the region. Maureen Penjueli, coordinator for PANG, says Pacific island countries do not have the resources, capacity or experience to effectively manage and monitor large resource projects and
government should focus on supporting their own people rather than large corporate interests.

“We have had an alternative development model forced upon on us by outsiders but it is clear that model is not working for us and, indeed, is failing in the West as well. We, as Pacific people, need to find our own voice and return to a focus on our own strengths and knowledge base.”

“Deep-sea mining is likely to be another catastrophic failure for the region and
we don’t need it.”

Portrait Of Handworth riot in 1985 - Pogus Caesar

2011-02-24T12:52:00.000+11:00

Portrait Of The 1985 Handsworth Riots - Pogus Caesar - BBC1 TV . Inside Out.

Birmingham film maker and photographer Pogus Caesar knows Handsworth well. He found himself in the centre of the 1985 riots and spent two days capturing a series of startling images. Caesar kept them hidden for 20 years. Why? And how does he see Handsworth now?.

The stark black and white photographs featured in the film provide a rare, valuable and historical record of the raw emotion, heartbreak and violence that unfolded during those dark and fateful days in September 1985.

Hikoi to oppose the marine and coastal bill

2011-02-16T14:52:00.001+11:00

OPPOSE THE MARINE & COASTAL BILL

HIKOI 2011

TAUTOKO MAI TE KAUPAPA

LED BY:WIKATANA POPATA, AND TE ROOPU MARANGA AKE

WHEN:THURSDAY 24th FEBRUARY, 2011

STARTING FROM: TE RERENGA WAIRUA HIKOI THROUGH TO WELLINGTON

TIME: KARAKIA @ 6am

BRING YOUR WALKING SHOES, FLAGS, PLACARDS, BANNERS

Wikatana Popata Contact details:

021 134 0586, Email/maorilise@hotmail.com

Scenes from Tahrir Square: The Revolution Victorious

2011-02-12T07:47:00.000+11:00

Hapu disappointed by Environment Court Decision

2011-02-10T17:28:00.000+11:00

Te Uri o Hau is disappointed that the Environment Court has recommended that the Minister of Conservation grant resource consents to Crest Energy Kaipara Ltd to place 200 turbines into the Kaipara Harbour, New Zealand’s largest estuarine ecosystem, but is pleased with “real gains” achieved in the consent conditions. The Ngati Whatua hapu became involved in the project through its environmental subsidiary Environs Holdings Ltd after concerns were raised about the ecological and cultural impacts of the large scale development.

Each of the 200 turbines will be 22m high, measured from the seabed. “A project of this scale has never been undertaken before – in New Zealand or the world. Although we are pleased that the Court has placed additional restrictions on the project, we remain concerned that the conditions do not go far enough as we believe there are inherent risks in a project of this scale.” says Te Uri o Hau Settlement Trust Chair, Mihi Watene, from Waikaretu Marae, Pouto.

“We are concerned about effects on fisheries including snapper, and other marine life, such as maui dolphin. According to a study by NIWA, 98% of all North Island west coast juvenile snapper originate from the Kaipara Harbour, and we already know that the commercially important west coast snapper stock (SNA8) has only 8% of its original stock left” says Ms Watene.

However, Te Uri o Hau welcomes the requirement that only 3 turbines can be initially installed, rather than 20 as originally proposed. Other gains are a requirement for Crest to monitor the effects for at least one year after the first installation, and that the public is expected to be involved in the Northland Regional Council’s consideration of whether to allow further stages to be developed.
However, the hapu remains concerned about the uncertainty and the irreversibility of potential effects. “We don’t want to take any risks in this delicate ecosystem. The Kaipara Harbour needs to be protected” says Ms Watene.

Te Uri o Hau would like to see the consent refused, granted for a shorter term, or granted with more stringent monitoring and staging requirements. “We hope the Minister of Conservation, Kate Wilkinson, will err on the side of caution and adopt our suggestions for a more careful approach” says Ms Watene.

For enquiries in this first instance contact
Deborah Harding Cell: 021 714 254

LOWKEY: EGYPT REVOLUTION

2011-02-08T10:04:00.000+11:00

The Egyptian Revolution

2011-01-31T19:55:00.000+11:00

Tautoko/Solidarity to the Peoples Popular Uprising in Egypt.

This is what REAL Mana Motuhake & Tino Rangatiratanga is all about POWER TO THE PEOPLE.

Aotearoa Stands in Solidarity

Saturday, February 5 · 2:00pm - 5:00pm
Location Aotea Square, Auckland.

The people of Egypt are not stopping, coming out day after day to demand change. We cannot stop either.

So Saturday Feb 5th at Aotea Square we will gather a second time and show our support for the brave souls out on the Egyptian streets protesting relentlessly for their freedom.

Please pass this onto your friends and family. We want large numbers this time around.

Wear red or black, and bring along your flags (from any and all identities)

See you there!

Viva la Revolucion!

Saturday, February 5 · 12:00pm - 3:00pm
Midlands park, Lambton Quay, Wellington

Solidarity with the Egyptian people supporting their struggle for democracy.
We will start outside the vodafone building midlands park and make our way past parliament to the US embassy. Bring placards, flags and banners :)

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets calling for President Mubarak to step down after his 30 year autocratic rule.

...The protesters have been met with extreme violence as Mubarak orders the police and the military to quell the street protests. Over 100 have been killed and many more injured. Still Hosni Mubarak refuses to listen to his people.

Mubarak has ordered a complete shutdown of the internet and moblie phone networks in Egypt in order to stop protesters communicating with each other and the outside world thus leaving them unprotected.
Vodafone are blaming the internet blackout on “problems” with their service, refusing to acknowledge their total and utter compliance and therefore support of a corrupt, violent and undemocratic regime.

The USA has issued statements regarding the unrest in Egypt but has stopped short of actually taking any action to improve the situation or state that Mubarak step down due to Mubarak being a close ally of the US administration. America continues to state that it considers it's relationship with Hosni Mubarak to be 'friendly.'

Supported by Unite Wellington and Socialist Aotearoa

The Egyptian Revolution will Continue until Victory

2011-01-31T03:21:00.000+11:00

All Power to the People

2011-01-28T00:22:00.000+11:00

Egyptian police have arrested at least 1,000 protesters across the country as unprecedented protests against president Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule enter a third day.

"The Black Power Mixtape"–Danny Glover Discusses New Doc Featuring Rare Archival Footage of Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, Stokely Carmichael

2011-01-28T00:10:00.000+11:00

ANGELA DAVIS: You ask me, you know, whether I approve of violence—I mean, that just doesn’t make any sense at all—whether I approve of guns. I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. Some very, very good friends of mine were killed by bombs, bombs that were planted by racists. I remember—from the time I was very small, I remember the sounds of bombs exploding across the street, our house shaking. I remember my father having to have guns at his disposal at all times because of the fact that, at any moment, someone—we might expect to be attacked. The man who was at that time in complete control of the city government—his name was Bull Connor—would often get on the radio and make statements like "Niggers have moved into a white neighborhood; we better expect some bloodshed tonight." And sure enough, there would be bloodshed.
After the four young girls who were—who lived very—one of them lived next door to me. I was very good friends with the sister of another one. My sister was very good friends with all three of them. My mother taught one of them in her class. My mother—in fact, when the bombing occurred, one of the mothers of one of the young girls called my mother and said, "Can you take me down to the church to pick up Carole? You know, we heard about the bombing, and I don’t have my car." And they went down, and what did they find? They found limbs and heads strewn all over the place. And then, after that, in my neighborhood, all the men organized themselves into an armed patrol. They had to take their guns and patrol our community every night, because they did not want that to happen again. I mean, that’s why when someone asks me about violence, I just—I just find it incredible, because what it means is that the person who’s asking that question has absolutely no idea what black people have gone through, what black people have experienced in this country, since the time the first black person was kidnapped from the shores of Africa.

Tainui people reinstate Tania Martin

2011-01-26T20:32:00.000+11:00

Workers urged to resist National's privatization plans

2011-01-26T16:05:00.000+11:00

Wednesday, 26 January 2011, 3:12 pm

Press Release: Maritime Union of New Zealand

Maritime Union urges workers to resist National's privatization plans

Maritime Union of New Zealand media release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday 26 January 2011

The Maritime Union says the planned privatization of key public assets must be stopped.
The Prime Minister announced today the National Government were planning partial sales of key state assets.

Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says the loss of further public assets would be a disaster for working people.

He says the Maritime Union would campaign to protect the assets that generations of New Zealand workers collectively contributed towards and built up.

"There is no way we can allow the National Government to flog off any more public assets to their rich mates."
Mr Fleetwood says public assets such as energy and electricity generators and Solid Energy should remain in public ownership.

He says that previous claims the privatization of assets would benefit "mum and dad investors" were nonsense.

"All New Zealand mums and dads are already shareholders in these public assets. The only beneficiaries of privatization will be overseas investors and a minority of the very wealthy."
"Privatization is not a one off, it is a process, and National are trying to get the process underway that will end in the sell off of the last remaining assets we own."

He says that guarantees that majority ownership would remain in New Zealand hands were not worth the paper they were written on.

Mr Fleetwood says that asset sales together with free trade deals would soon reduce New Zealanders to tenants in their own country.

He says the Maritime Union would be mobilizing in election year to ensure all New Zealanders were aware of the threat of privatization.

ENDS

Intervention Intervention

2011-01-15T19:03:00.000+11:00

An art exhibition titled “Intervention Intervention” opened in Sydney this week featuring the works of 18 artists, engaging and exploring the realities of the Northern Territory Intervention.

The exhibition was organized to counter what the curators described as a whitewashing of the Intervention in the mainstream media and by Australian politicians.

The Intervention was implemented by the Howard government in 2007 and has not only been maintained but also intensified by the successive Labor governments.

The intervention has been condemned by the United Nations and was slammed by a UN special Rapporteur Professor James Anaya during his visit to Northern Territory in 2009, where he reported that the intervention is in breach of treaties to which Australia is a signatory.

The exhibition is a response by the artists about the little-known realities of the intervention, which have developed since 2007.

The artworks focus on the changes to welfare, law enforcement and land tenure. Under the intervention, whole Aboriginal communities have had their welfare payments quarantined, some moved off their land and stronger police and military presence.

In order to implement the Intervention the government was forced to suspend the Racial Discrimination Act as only Aboriginal people were targeted.

The government says the intervention was necessary to prevent the outbreak of child sexual abuse in some Northern Territory communities.

The exhibition developed out of a general feeling amongst the arts community of concern and despair about the injustices happening to the people affected by the Northern Territory Intervention.

The curators and artists acknowledge that there were serious issues of violence and alcohol abuse exacerbated by poverty amongst the targeted communities in the Northern Territory.

However, they say the intervention has failed to address these issues as well as the claims of child sexual abuse.

Moreover, the same measures have not been taken against non-indigenous communities where these problems occur. It is this stark discrimination that has led both domestic and international bodies to strongly condemn this government measure.

ChuckD Shoutout Lowkey AusTour

2011-01-13T20:50:00.000+11:00

Te Kauhanganui Report

2011-01-10T11:49:00.002+11:00

Support Tania Martin Chairperson of Te Kauhangaui meeting Hopuhopu 22 Jan 2011

essential reading for misguided people that defend crooks like Tuku Bent Morgan

Tainui - Te - Kauhanganui - Report

2011-01-06T16:21:00.000+11:00

Capitalist Punishment:
Prison Privatization and Human Rights

edited by Andrew Coyle, Allison Campbell and Rodney Neufeld

Zed Books (2003), London,
ISBN: 1 84277 291 0

Reviewed by:
Jon Yorke
PhD Candidate
School of Law,University of Warwick

Jon.Yorke@warwick.ac.uk

1. Introduction

Capitalist Punishment: Prison Privatization and Human Rights is a response to the hegemonic practices, which have led to human rights violations caused by the prison privatisation industry. Indeed, this volume offers a timely circumspect dialogue on the debates surrounding the privatisation of prisons around the world. Currently the privatisation prison industry is under the spotlight, and after the events of 11 September 2001, the world is watching to see how effectively the industry will play its part in the incarceration of criminals in the 'war against terrorism'.

Capitalist Punishment is an introduction to the issues of how the industry infringes upon prisoners' human rights par excellence, and offers an inter-disciplinary overview of the issues. The aim of the book is to highlight not only a socio-political discourse on prison privatisation, but a legal one too. Hence, all people involved within the prison industry, both academically, and professionally, will benefit from the information presented.

Turning the pages, readers may be shocked by the pernicious human rights violations, which occur within privatised prisons. Shocked, perhaps, because most violations are not brought to the public's attention by the media; as they are shrouded within the confines of the panoptical prison. Furthermore, the reader will notice a limited number of privatisation companies cited by the different authors. This is because there are only a limited number of key corporations, which advance the industry. A reader will quickly become familiar with the two world leaders in prison privatisation - Corrections Corporations of America, and Wakenhut Corrections.

In essence, this book is about the dwindling of the state's monopoly on incarceration, and the effects of the subjugation of prisoners, under the watch of corporations. The corporations advise the governments that privatisation is the only viable option under a burgeoning prison population. But is privatisation the only rhetoric to be considered, with the incarceration of a prison populace? Coyle et al think not.

2. The Growth of the Privatisation of Prisons

The modern phenomenon of prison privatisation derives from the United States, and the first three chapters of the book reflect this. The proceeding chapters detail specific violations of human (and People's) rights within privatised prisons, both in the US and selected countries around the world. The United States is a melting-pot for the advancement of the privatization prisons ideology, and so the book primarily focuses on the situation in the US.

In the 1980s, and continuing today, the US criminal justice system adopted a hard-lined view with the sentencing of offenders. This 'get tough on crime approach' has led to zero-tolerance, 'three strikes legislation' and mandatory minimum sentences, which have overwhelmed the prison services. Such practices were instigated through neoliberal policies formulated by the Reagan Presidency, and to a certain extent, within the United Kingdom. What results is a politically 'claimed' fiscal deficiency, which leads the governments to look to the private industry to solve the problems of the burgeoning prison population.

In the first three chapters of the book this scene is set, with the authors describing the resultant, 'prison industrial complex'. The prison industrial complex is an industry created by severe sentencing policies and a sustained prison populace, which is then governed by private corporations. The public sector is removed by the neoliberal ideology of the free market. Hence economics determine prison governance, which is antipathetically set against the protection of prisoners' human rights. How is this allowed to happen? Chapters Four to 17, detail the reasons for this egregious praxis.

3. Human1 Rights Violations

This volume illustrates that the denial of human rights is endemic within privatised prisons. An intractable amount of deaths have occurred in private prisons, so too have rapes and other physical and mental torture. Medical care is restricted by the corporations, and inmates have died as a result of the guards refusing to allow the prisoners to see medical staff. Minorities are marginalised; racism is systemic; women are subjugated in many private prisons; and juveniles do not receive effective rehabilitation, resulting in a high recidivism rate. The human rights violations caused by the privatised industry is alarming.

Even with a growing body of legal decisions, condemning the practices of the privatised industry in the US, UK and Australia, privatised corporations still obtain contracts to govern prisons. The political and legal mechanism, which allows this status quo, is achieved by a practical immunity from democratic accountability. Katherine van Wormer illuminates in Chapter Nine:

…private prisons tend to distract public officials from responsibility for the way private prisons are run. Under privatization, the internal mechanisms of punishment are cloaked in a veil of secrecy. When a scandal occurs, journalists and other observers will focus on the performance, efficiency, and services of the private prison, rather than on public officials for allowing the conditions to persist. Accordingly, the government is conveniently let off the hook2 .

The authors argue that the corporate structure of the prison industrial complex, allows politicians to separate themselves from responsibility when a private prison does not ensure the observance of human rights. Furthermore, the corporations themselves have enjoyed a substantial amount of immunity. In the landmark US Supreme Court decision in Correctional Services Corporation v Malesko, 122 SC 515 (2001) it was held that in the area of offering health care provisions, private corporations who run 'prisons under contract with the federal government are protected from suit for their constitutional violations3 . Hence, there is a hegemonic rhetoric created, which drastically diminishes the accountability of the prison industrial complex for human rights violations.

Racial issues are at the forefront when considering the human rights violations. Chapter Eight deals with the arrested development of African Americans. Monique Morris talks about the 'legalized apartheid (segregation)'4 within the history of American law, and she discusses the wider, social, ramifications and issues surrounding racism; firstly within society, then within the judicial sentencing structure and prison populations. In Chapter 10, Frank Smith discusses the engendered issues resulting in the violations of the human and cultural rights of the Native Americans. He offers a short, enlightened, discourse on the historical perspective of slavery and the repugnant US Supreme Court decision in Plessy v Fergeson, 163 US 537 (1896), which introduced the egregious 'separate but equal' doctrine. Plessy was overruled in the two Brown v Board of Education cases5 .

Katherine van Wormer argues that women are treated unfairly and that there is a 'backlash against …women's creeping equality'6 . Wormer states that the law is anti-feminist. Also, that through the 'war on drugs', women are singled-out because many will be given up by their junkie husbands. Furthermore, up to 40 percent of incarcerated women were for drug offences7 . Indeed, Wormer acutely emphasis the plight of many incarcerated women. In Chapter 178 , Amanda George reveals the harrowing experiences many women face within the Australian Metropolitan Women's Correctional Center.

In Chapter Seven, Mark Erik Hecht and Donna Habsha outline the privatisation of juvenile prisons, and the monitoring of juvenile prisons through international law9 . The authors include a case study on Canada and the United Kingdom. It is argued that within the UK, juvenile crime rates have decreased, but the juvenile prison population has increased. A reason is suggested:

… numerous highly publicised acts of violence have distorted the reality of youth involved in crime and have led to intense public debate on the matter. Politicians have been driven to introduce harsher sentencing policies and legislation as a result of public pressure to 'get tough on crime'10 .

The authors also highlight the failure of the Canadian adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, stating that the juvenile human rights paradigm is thwarted by the practices of the privatisation industry.

4. Selling the US 'Prison Industrial Complex' to the world

One area that is briefly touched upon by this volume (and possibly should/could have been developed further), is the 'threat' of the US prison industrial complex being imposed on other countries. This is a serious point which Stephen Nathan investigates in Chapter 1611 . He begins his chapter with a letter penning an earnest worldwide plea by Mr C L Siimane, the Director General of the Lesotho Prison Service. Mr Siimane wrote an open letter to the international criminal justice community asking for help, he begins his letter, 'We wish to inform you that we are under terrible pressure to have the entire Lesotho Prison Service privatized by Group 4 from the UK …' and he goes on to say, '… do anything in your power and means to frustrate the wishes and efforts of Group 4 and its proponents'12 .

Why such a desperate plea? The subject matter and detailed examples of this volume make it clear. Many human rights violations are caused by the privatised prison industry, and each government should beware of adopting such a repugnant capitalist model. Certainly, the US privatisation companies are of the view that they can 'make a significant impact on the global corrections market'13 . Julie Berg, in Chapter 15, highlights the concerns with the development of the privatisation of prisons within South Africa. She is of the opinion that the modernised 'prison industrial complex' will not satisfactorily cope with the intricate cultural distinctions that exist the South Africa, and hence, Africa as a whole.

It also cannot be stated with any authority that the US model has worked in the UK, and the authors seem to suggest that this is why the industry is moving away from the developed world and focusing their claws on the emerging economies, as stated in chapter sixteen. Disturbingly, when the UK considered how to deal with its burgeoning prison population, the government only considered the rhetorical 'spin' from the US, and did not consider other country's models; such as the French, semi-private model. Hence the US corporations gained contracts within the UK, and brought with them their egregious practices. The author's collective message to the global criminal justice systems is 'stay public'.

5. Conclusion

The authors of the articles within Capitalist Punishment: Prison Privatization and Human Rights have produced a sound discourse urging governments to monitor and condemn the illegal practices of the prison privatisation industry, and also a sound portfolio warning prospective governments against blindly handing over their prisons to the corporations. The words of the corporations appear to bring bright futures, but governments should wait to hear both sides of the story. This volume brings the hitherto untold story of those who have suffered behind the panoptical protection of the privately owned prison walls.

Endnotes

1 . Within the specific African, and other indigenous human rights rhetoric, 'people's' and 'cultural' rights are recognised. This volume details and argues such 'people's' and 'cultural' rights. See, Chapter Eight: Prison Privatization: The Arrested Development of African Americans, by Monique Morris; Chapter 10: Incarceration of Native Americans and Private Prisons, by Frank Smith; Chapter 11: The Use of Privatized Detention Centers for Asylum Seekers in Australia and the UK, by Bente Molenaar and Rodney Neufeld; Chapter 15: Prison Privatization Development in South Africa, by Julie Berg; and Chapter 16: Private Prisons: Emerging and Transformative Economies, by Stephen Nathan.
2 . Chapter Nine: Prison Privatization and Women, by Katherine van Wormer, p 108.
3 . Chapter Six: Private Prisons and Health Care: The HMO From Hell, by Alexander, E, p 67.
4 .Chapter Eight, supra, note 1, p 87.
5 .Brown v Board of Education 347 US 483 (1954) Brown 1, the Constitutional ruling; Brown v Board of Education 349 US 294 (1955) Brown 2, the implementation decision. These cases abolished segregation within schools.
6 . Chapter Nine, supra, note 2, p 103.
7 . As a legal intern for the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, in 1996, I visited an Oklahoman women's correctional facility to interview the wife of an inmate on death row in Oklahoma. The woman was handed over to the police by her husband, for drug offences.
8 . Chapter 17: Women Prisoners as Customers: Counting the Costs of the Privately Managed Metropolitan Women's Correctional Center: Australia, by Amanda George.
9 . Chapter Seven: International Law and the Privatization of Juvenile Justice, by Mark Erik Hecht and Donna Habsha.
10 . ibid, p 81.
11 . Chapter 16: Private Prisons: Emerging and Transformative Economies, by Stephen Nathan.
12 . ibid, p 189.
13 . ibid, p 190.

This is a book review published on 20 January 2004.

Citation: Yorke, J, 'Capitalist Punishment: Prison Privatization adn Human Rights' edited by Andrew Coyle, Allison Campbell and Rodney Neufeld, Book Review, Law, Social Justice & Global Development Journal (LGD) 2003 (2) . New citation as at 1/1/04: <http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/lgd/2003_2/yorke/>

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