Foreword

Run by the UNSW Law Society’s Social Justice Portfolio, Shades of Injustice allows students to share their voices on global issues impacting ethnocultural communities. The portfolio hopes this initiative humanises current news events and will encourage engagement with such issues within the UNSW Law community.

Since its inception in 2020 by then Ethnocultural Officer, Amal Naser, topics that have been published in the Shades of Injustice blog include but are not limited to: racial discrimination and COVID-19, genocides, and refugee and indigenous rights. We hope that these articles are not only insightful but will spark discussion within the minds of the students that read them.

Throughout the year the Social Justice Portfolio will be releasing more of these articles which will touch on various issues centred around disadvantages, discrimination or persecution experienced by people around the world on the basis of their ethnocultural identity.

If you are interested in contributing to Shades of Injustice, please follow the link below or email ethnocultural.officer@unswlawsoc.org.

https://forms.gle/eiWBshfywTiXphpd6

- Yang Yang Jiang

2023 Ethnocultural Officer

Raising the Age of Criminal Responsibility in Australia - the Need for Federal Reform

Australia’s minimum age of criminal responsibility is 10, despite the average age of criminal responsibility globally being 14.[1] How does this age set Australia apart in the way we criminalise young offenders?

I     CURRENT OPERATION OF THE MINIMUM AGE OF CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY

In Australia, the law states that children under the age of 10 are not liable for any criminal wrongdoing. From the age of 10 to 13, there is a rebuttable presumption that children are incapable of committing criminal acts. This principle is called doli incapax and it is up to the prosecution to rebut this presumption. The prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the young offender knew that their conduct was ‘seriously wrong’ and not just ‘naughty’ or ‘mischievous’.[2] Conversely, children aged 14 and above are imposed with full criminal responsibility.

WHERE DREAMS MORPH INTO NIGHTMARES – THE EXPERIENCES OF MIGRANT WORKERS IN AUSTRALIA

‘No bird in a cage ever speaks. What is there to say? The sky is everywhere, churning above its head, blue and endless, calling out to it. But the caged bird can’t answer anything except “I cannot”.’[1]

– Sonya Hartnett

I     INTRODUCTION – TAKING FLIGHT

Entrapment.

Fear.

Isolation. 

The caged bird struggles under the burden of these emotions, yearning for relief from his desolate plight. The wiry walls of his cage shield him from a world vast and unknown to him, but one that his soul desires with fervent passion. Unable to spread his wings, he sings of freedom, his voice piercing the night as he mourns the loss of a life he has never tasted. He serenades the world with a beautiful lament, hoping someone will stop to listen and understand his grief. Yet as his voice crescendos, the howling wind drowns him out and eventually he quietens, his voice hoarse. 

Why sing if no one will listen?

Invisible Peoples

It’s easy to live under false pretences. It’s easy to see only what we want to see, to hear only what we want to hear, to believe only what we want to believe. Sometimes, in this chaotic world of ours, amidst a frenzy of conflicting truths and clashing philosophies, it seems that there’s no choice but to cast out certain inconvenient and ugly peripheries. So, in order to make some sense of this disorder and discord, we develop a tunnel vision of sorts; we perceive society through a set of monoculars, fine-tuned and tailored for our needs. With them, we’re able to better focus on what directly concerns us, preserve our core values in an era where absolute truths and consensus are hard to come by, and  maintain some semblance of a worldview in an age of uncertainty and deconstruction. However, if we’re not careful, these monoculars may also blind us to the issues and stories that, more than anything else, should remain in the foreground. Without proper care, this tunnel vision may cast out of sight unignorable tears in the fabric of our society, as well as the uncomfortable truth that we ourselves may be perpetrators of prejudice.

THE WORKPLACE THROUGH THE EYES OF WOMEN OF COLOUR AND INDIGENOUS WOMEN

Gender equality is a foundational pillar of progressive and modern 21st century societies and it is clear that we have come a long way from where we were. More and more women have gone to school, there is greater agency for women, more women are advancing in the workplace and undertaking various forms of leadership, and legislative bodies have become more receptive to issues of inequality faced by women.[1] However, the landscape of equality remains rough terrain and there is still a long way to go, especially for women of colour and First Nations women. Just over 100 years ago, with the ratification of the 19th amendment of the US Constitution, women won their right to vote, with this amendment being particularly significant for women of colour. Although the earlier 15th amendment indicated voting rights despite race, they still could not vote due to their gender. The need for two constitutional amendments to allow women of colour to vote, aptly highlights the extra set of challenges women of colour face due to both their gender and race.[2] This notion can be seen especially in the modern workplace, where women have progressed far more than we have ever seen, but women of colour and Indigenous women continue to face various types of discrimination and are lagging far behind in this fight for equality.

LOST CHILDHOODS IN IMMIGRATION DETENTION CENTRES

Deprivation of liberty means ‘any form of detention or imprisonment, or the placement of a person in another public or private custodial setting from which this person is not permitted to leave at will, by order of any judicial, administrative or other public authority’.[1] The UN Human Rights Committee has reported on several occasions that the immigration detention policies of the Australian Government breach human rights.[2]

There are currently less than 5 children in Immigration Residential Housing, Immigration Transit Accommodation and Alternative Places of Detention, and 181 children are living in the community after being approved for a residence determination.[3] But despite this, heartbreaking images have emerged of two young girls, Tharunicaa and Kopika, who have spent three years in an Australian immigration detention centre.[4] They, along with their parents, are Tamil asylum seekers who were taken from their home on the 5th of March 2018 after overstaying their visa.[5] They are the only family detained on Christmas Island waiting for their decision amidst the pandemic.[6] The Government has spent $1.4 million in the past year to keep this family on the island.[7] Yet, it has been three years since the young children have seen the outside world; nothing could justify the lost years of their childhood.

“I Am Not Your Scapegoat”: The Rise in Anti-Asian Attacks & The Aftermath of the Atlanta Shooting

By Maha Rauf

I. THE ATLANTA SHOOTING

“Asian is not a virus. Racism is.”

“I did not make you sick.”

“I am not your scapegoat.”

“I am not an exotic fantasy.”

These messages have been angrily sprawled across the walls of subway stations, bus stops, streets, alleys, and on protest signs by activists in the U.S, and across the globe,[1] in the wake of the horrific Atlanta shootings which resulted in the murder of eight people, including six Asian women.

Chinese Leverage, International Cowardice, Activist Media: The Tale of the Uyghur Genocide

In a current social climate of turmoil and volatility, of uncertainty and apathy, there is one push for humanity that has always remained constant: stopping the Uyghur genocide.

Uyghurs are a Muslim-minority in China who are persecuted because of their religion. Not only are they being detained, tortured and heavily surveillanced, but their culture and heritage is being made to evaporate in what will only lead to disastrous intergenerational outcomes, mercilessly removing the culture off the face of the Earth.

The minority has been forced into concentration camps and are barred from practicing their religion. They are made to drink alcohol and are prohibited from speaking their native language. Most abhorrently, however, Uyghur women are forcefully sterilised, forced to have abortions and are forced to have birth control implants. This has led to an alarming decrease in Uyghur birth rates.

These acts amount to a cultural and demographic genocide.

Why is International Law not intervening?

Refugees & COVID: A new “Catch 22”

Covid-19 doesn’t discriminate. Yet the Australian Government’s response to it does.

A recent case launched by the Human Rights Law Centre voices the community’s mounting concern for the vulnerability of refugees in detention. The plaintiff, a chronically ill refugee, has exposed the hypocrisy of a government that mandates physical distancing and limited gatherings and yet does not provide the environment necessary for refugees to abide by these laws.

Shades of Injustice Issue 1 - Racial Discrimination

Shades of Injustice Issue 1 - Racial Discrimination

Foreword

Shades of Injustice is a new initiative run by the UNSW Law Society’s Social Justice Portfolio which will allow students from minority backgrounds to share their voices on global issues impacting ethnocultural communities. We have a decided to launch our first article to coincide with last week’s Harmony Day and International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This issue’s reflection upon racial discrimination is particulary relevant today in light of the rise of xenophobia against the Asian Community due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak. I hope as students we can all recognise that an individual’s racial background serves as a symbol of individuality. As law students especially, we should be cognisant of human rights issues and recognise the importance of reflecting on the prevelance of stereotyping, harassment and discrimination that occurs on the basis of one’s race. We should also recognise how this holds us from being a society that truly harnesses the strengths of diversity and multiculturalism.

Throughout the year we will be releasing more of these articles which will touch on various issues that are centred around disadvantages, discrimination or persecution experienced by people around the world on the basis of their ethnocultural identity. If you’re interested in contributing to Shades of Injustice, please follow the link below or email ethnocultural.officer@unswlawsoc.org!

https://forms.gle/WVrw3QJoPcvHtBrp8

I hope you enjoy our first article!

-Amal Naser (Ethnocultural Officer)