FROM this week’s news ON: human rights and humanitarian aid - PART TWO OF TWO [Note: Content Warning - links to distressing reports on this topic. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are shown in green. I have loosely grouped the posts where such seemed reasonable, but that is subjective (i.e., my opinion - others are free to disagree), and challenging, as some posts belong in multiple “groups”.

Fromm this week’s news on human rights (note: I may continue to add links for a few days, possibly up to a week, after these are published), noting that many issues have probably not made it into the news that I see: 

• from the Yoorrook Justice Commission   https://yoorrookjusticecommission.org.au/   - and see also   “Truth, colonisation and Yoorrook: what is Victoria’s truth-telling inquiry and what will it achieve?”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/18/victoria-indigenous-truth-telling-inquiry-yoorrook-justice-commission-jacinta-allan-premier   -   in my home state   :   “Surveyor-General of Victoria, Craig Sandy apology”   https://youtu.be/K-s4w_9pcqE?si=e23kc-W1CBUnoka8   and   “The Henty legacy”   https://youtu.be/Y42i-4MAGSE?si=vcAc5TfNNZnxuU_q   and   “Minister for Environment, Hon. Steve Dimopoulos MP on the government exclusion of traditional owners”   https://youtu.be/3f0Nn4bic28?si=aKz_djAjVniIxUJF   “Environment Minister tells Yoorrook state intentionally cut Traditional Owner groups out of billion-dollar windfall”   https://nit.com.au/16-04-2024/10859/threshold-was-set-to-exclude-traditional-owners-environment-minister-tells-yoorrook-the-state-intentionally-cut-traditional-owner-groups-from-billion-dollar-windfall   The blatant racism and greed in twisting the formula to exclude Traditional Owners is staggering - and this is a decades long problem   and   “Rueben Berg explains connection to environment passed down by his ancestors”   https://youtu.be/eLMgKgY4Luc?si=t_M1olzcjKUHu3Vu   The comment to the effect that cutting down a tree to make a canoe would leave no tree and wasn’t needed so they made bark canoes instead is particularly enlightening into the very advanced levels of awareness and cultivation of the First Peoples of Australia         and, from the    First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria   https://www.firstpeoplesvic.org/   “Professor Henry Reynolds - Code Of Silence”   https://youtu.be/eP5yDA7H0q4?si=--j321FTv4yEA8Xm   on killing expeditions         and, also in my home state,   “Talkin Treaty”   https://youtu.be/jjqfaxk5oN0?si=gQWlATK54LGY8q_S   and   ““No amount of money can compensate for the pain and suffering” : Co-chairs say Treaty talks to centre on government negotiations”   https://nit.com.au/17-04-2024/10889/no-amount-of-money-can-compensate-for-the-pain-and-suffering-co-chairs-say-treaty-talks-to-centre-on-government-negotiations  

• “Kids allegedly locked in cells while Don Dale [Youth Detention Centre in Darwin was] on fire”   https://nit.com.au/15-04-2024/10810/kids-allegedly-locked-in-cells-while-don-dale-on-fire   These are very grave allegations, and must be promptly, independently, and competently investigated - and commensurate actions taken if proven true  

• “First Nations boy, 10, dies in apparent suicide while in state care in Western Australia”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/18/wa-first-nations-indigenous-boy-death-state-care-suicide-coronial-inquest   “Lidia Thorpe urges long overdue nationwide reform in wake of 10-year-old's death in state care”   https://nit.com.au/18-04-2024/10905/lidia-thorpe-urges-long-overdue-nationwide-reform-in-wake-of-10-year-olds-suicide-in-state-care   “Death of 10yo in state care raises questions about system, as number of children in care surges”   https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-19/boy-dies-by-suicide-in-state-care-as-numbers-in-care-rise/103741260         “Evidence around removing 'detention of children as a last resort' unclear, interim report finds”   https://nit.com.au/18-04-2024/10908/evidence-around-removing-detention-of-children-as-a-last-resort-unclear-interim-report-finds   “Mental health expert flags need for more funding in Kimberley to address suicide, early intervention”   https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-19/mental-health-funding-kimberley/103740408  
  

• “Transform landmark Indigenous rights declaration into reality: UN General Assembly President”   https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/04/1148691   a National Indigenous Times exclusive reports:   “Exclusive: Indigenous youth delegates address UN, urge Australian government to embrace Declaration on First Nations rights”   https://nit.com.au/18-04-2024/10885/exclusive-un-nntc  
  

My links for activism post may aid any activism you may decide to do on any/all of these. If you do, don’t get too fixated on specific instances of problems - important though they may well be: take a moment to also consider the broader issues these incidents and groups of incidents may suggest/reveal.

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following:  

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

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Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/