Human Rights a waste?

This is troubling to hear from a person who should know better than anyone being a lawyer. The punishment is being sentenced to a term of imprisonment. That is where it ends. One might assume this guy thinks that we should lock up the perps first and then make up our own other punishments on top, like make sure they get it up the bum etc. Human rights are extended to everyone simply by the virtue of being human?? WTF. And apart from that, the justice system is for everyone too, all people. Including those locked up in it.

johnboy said :

Matt_Watts said :

They work best as principles, IMHO, which should influence practice and policy but not legislation. If they’re legally binding, you’ll end up with the same practical difficulties from which California suffers, where legally binding plebiscites restrict the legislature’s ability to govern.

California would work a lot better if large corporate interests were restricted from setting up twee sounding front groups to try and break direct democracy.

http://exiledonline.com/progressive-turncoats-pro-labor-politician-from-east-los-angeles-fronting-for-koch-brothers-wall-street-fraudsters-and-wal-mart-oligarchs/

Slightly different thing, but there’s also situations like the “Flags for Orphans and Airline Rerouting Bill”…

But take that Simpsons reference as a real example – with flight paths there are competing interests. If such interests, based on rights or what have you, were to prevent legislation we wouldn’t get anywhere.

In the ACT, I understand the act says each bill needs a statement from the Human Rights Commissioner. I believe MLAs (and especialy Ministers) should be able to defend their proposed legislation.

Matt_Watts said :

They work best as principles, IMHO, which should influence practice and policy but not legislation. If they’re legally binding, you’ll end up with the same practical difficulties from which California suffers, where legally binding plebiscites restrict the legislature’s ability to govern.

California would work a lot better if large corporate interests were restricted from setting up twee sounding front groups to try and break direct democracy.

http://exiledonline.com/progressive-turncoats-pro-labor-politician-from-east-los-angeles-fronting-for-koch-brothers-wall-street-fraudsters-and-wal-mart-oligarchs/

DrKoresh said :

Matt_Watts said :

IrishPete said :

bikhet said :

I’m all for human rights, so long as they’re balanced by human responsibilities. In the ACT they appear to be seriously unbalanced.

Evidence for this claim? One unbalanced opinion-piece written by one lawyer with his own agenda does not make it true.

IP

Simple fact that, if one uses the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a starting point, not all “human rights” are reflected in the ACT’s Human Rights Act. Surely this situation increases the likelihood that outcomes will be skewed given the knowledge from time to time these “rights” will come into conflict.

That is in fact why I am against the ACT Human Rights Act; parliament should weigh up the pros and cons of each bit of proposed legislation, rather than hide behind a skewed act.

Why can’t we just adopt the UDoHR then? We’re signatories, so maybe we should get around to bloody ratifying it, that would surely go at least some of the way to reducing all this BS.

They work best as principles, IMHO, which should influence practice and policy but not legislation. If they’re legally binding, you’ll end up with the same practical difficulties from which California suffers, where legally binding plebiscites restrict the legislature’s ability to govern.

I must be dyslexic, because I glanced at this story and read the headline as “Human Waste a Right”…

Matt_Watts said :

IrishPete said :

bikhet said :

I’m all for human rights, so long as they’re balanced by human responsibilities. In the ACT they appear to be seriously unbalanced.

Evidence for this claim? One unbalanced opinion-piece written by one lawyer with his own agenda does not make it true.

IP

Simple fact that, if one uses the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a starting point, not all “human rights” are reflected in the ACT’s Human Rights Act. Surely this situation increases the likelihood that outcomes will be skewed given the knowledge from time to time these “rights” will come into conflict.

That is in fact why I am against the ACT Human Rights Act; parliament should weigh up the pros and cons of each bit of proposed legislation, rather than hide behind a skewed act.

Why can’t we just adopt the UDoHR then? We’re signatories, so maybe we should get around to bloody ratifying it, that would surely go at least some of the way to reducing all this BS.

IrishPete said :

bikhet said :

I’m all for human rights, so long as they’re balanced by human responsibilities. In the ACT they appear to be seriously unbalanced.

Evidence for this claim? One unbalanced opinion-piece written by one lawyer with his own agenda does not make it true.

IP

Simple fact that, if one uses the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a starting point, not all “human rights” are reflected in the ACT’s Human Rights Act. Surely this situation increases the likelihood that outcomes will be skewed given the knowledge from time to time these “rights” will come into conflict.

That is in fact why I am against the ACT Human Rights Act; parliament should weigh up the pros and cons of each bit of proposed legislation, rather than hide behind a skewed act.

Mrs_Potato_Head said :

Irish Pete: Your knowledge of how the AMC is run must be better than my husband – who actually works there. Apart from the daily lock in times, the prisoners literally run the place.

How else could a bunch of child molesters start up a website inside a prison?

Hyperbolic statements like that are just silly. I deal in facts.

A couple of hundred people work there, and each is entitled to their opinion, not just your husband.

If the prisoners “literally run the place” then your husband would be redundant.

If the prisoners ran the place the child molesters would all be dead.

Security in a prison is a constant battle between prisoners and staff, with lots of losses and wins on each side. Occasionally some of the prisoners’ wins come to the attention of the media. 99% of them do not. Likewise for staff “wins”.

Compare with NSW, where a couple of years ago senior staff smuggled a prisoner’s sperm out so his girlfriend could get pregnant, and staff have been sacked for starting relationships with prisoners. All this has happened since the AMC opened, but nothing as bad as that has happened in the AMC. So I actually think it’s running OK in some respects.

There have been no murders and no suicides and no escapes in the AMC in the three and a half years it has been open. That’s an excellent record for a new prison.

Much could be improved in the running of the AMC, but on many measures it does quite well. Your husband and his colleagues deserve praise for that.

IP

IrishPete said :

bd84 said :

It has been a waste of time and money from the start. The community has paid millions for this useless piece of rubbish legislation and continues to for out hundreds of thousands each year to fund the operations of a “human rights commission” just to make the government feel nice and fuzzy inside.

All we get from it, is another place for the whingers of this town to complain to, add in adult and juvenile prisons that have the facilities of the 5 star Hilton and better than most people’s own home ” because the prisoners have human rights” and then give the same scum a legal loophole to try and get away with their crimes as described by the prosecutor in the story.

Rip the legislation up and abolish everything that has come with it, because none of it has been good.

Yep, another post as ill-informed as Mr Drumgold’s article.

No 5-star Hilton sends you to bed at 6.30pm, or makes you share a tiny room with a criminal, who may want you to be his “special friend” or intimidate you into smuggling drugs in for him. Cells and cell blocks are not air-conditioned. There is no swimming pool. Etcetera. Disregard almost everything you have ever read or heard about the AMC as being untrue.

IP

Irish Pete: Your knowledge of how the AMC is run must be better than my husband – who actually works there. Apart from the daily lock in times, the prisoners literally run the place. How else could a bunch of child molesters start up a website inside a prison?

A senior Prosecutor has reported to the CT that the Human Rights Act is not helping victims, you know, the human’s involved in a crime, instead it benefits the crims.

Next up, Grass Greenish says expert. Dog bites man! “No Sh!t exclaims Sherlock.