Tag Archives: Law & Politics

Nationality + Migration
Indonesian authorities claim Australian government paid human traffickers not to return to Indonesia rather than land at Australia
  • A boat crew arrested in Indonesia told the police that Australian authorities had paid them each A$5,000 (US$3,860) to turn back with the 65 migrants on board.
  • Australia has made every effort to ensure that asylum seekers do not reach its shores, including turning boats back to Indonesia and detaining refugees in camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
  • Australia’s Foreign Minister and Immigration Minister have denied the claims, but PM Tony Abbott has declined to comment, citing security reasons.

“Under Australian’s push-back policy we have been consistently saying they are on a slippery slope. … Should this situation be confirmed and it turns out to be true, it would be a new low for the way the government of Australia handles the situation on irregular migration.”

More on this story at Reuters.

(Image Credit: Reuters/David Gray)

Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity
Chile toughens measures against racism, discrimination, and violence amongst fans at association football matches
  • The government approved sanctions including increased fines and jail time for those engaging in racist, xenophobic, or discriminatory behavior, including the football clubs themselves.
  • The law’s scope also includes training sessions, the movement or transportation of fans, and public celebrations.
  • The crackdown has been issued as an attempt to curb football violence as the Copa America tournament begins, hosted this year in Santiago.

“We want to make sure that fans and families can enjoy the game safely and in pleasant conditions. … We will do all that we can to put an end to violence and give the sport the feeling of a community celebration.”

More on this story at BBC.

(Image Credit: Reuters, via BBC)

Sexual + Gender Minorities
Colombia adds itself to the list of countries eliminating medical examination requirements for legal gender identity recognition
  • The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior effected the change last Friday, removing the physical and psychiatric
  • Individuals now only need to submit their civil registry form, a copy of their ID card, and a sworn declaration to a notary public to register their identity, after which point the notary will have five days to complete the registration.
  • Subsequent changes to gender identity can only be made after a decade and can only be made twice in one’s lifetime.

“Judges used to order bodily inspections to determine if people had physically changed their sex, or demanded a psychiatric exam to know if the applicant had gender dysphoria. … Both exams were profoundly invasive of privacy rights and were rooted in unacceptable prejudice. The construction of sexual and gender identity is an issue that doesn’t depend on biology.”

More on this story at Americas Quarterly.

Religion + Belief
Maharashtra state government issues show-cause notices to 10 Mumbai schools classified as “minority schools”
  • The notices have arrived as officials claim the schools have not enrolled any minority students in the last three years in flagrant violation of the 51% admissions quota required for the special designation.
  • Schools designated as “minority schools” receive special government assistance with infrastructure.
  • Four of the ten schools are designated for either the Christian and Parsi communities, with the rest identified in association with the Jain community.
  • Maharashtra has 2,490 educational institutions with minority status designations.

More on this story at The Hindu.

Race + Color + Ethnicity
Israeli’s Education Minister removes state support for controversial play about Palestinian prisoner and convicted murderer
  • The play, A Parallel Time, has been produced by Arab theater Al-Midan in Haifa and features a story centered on the prison experience of Walid Daka, an Arab Israeli convicted of abducting and murdering an Israeli soldier in 1984.
  • A ministerial committee twice approved the play as part of the Ministry’s initiative to bring the arts and culture to Israeli schoolchildren, but Naftali Bennett, the Education Minister, accused the play of promoting tolerance of terrorists.
  • The theater has indicated that it will appeal the decision to the High Court of Justice, citing violation of free expression.

More on this story at The Times of Israel.

(Image Credit: The Times of Israel)

Nationality + Migration, Sexual + Gender Minorities
Uneven law enforcement in Japan regarding same-sex union recognition for immigrants and Japanese nationals causes concern for some
  • Although same-sex unions are not legally recognized in Japan, some immigrant couples have reported both partners being able to enter the country, with one listed as the dependent of the other, opening up a host of benefits.
  • Legal professionals have clarified that while a “designated activities” dependent visa is an option for a same-sex spouse, spousal visas are not currently an option for same-sex couples.
  • Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward announced in March that it would begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but these are not federally recognized and businesses are not required to recognize them.

“We have been together over 15 years and became civil partners in 2012. We are considering changing this to a marriage, an option that only became possible in December 2014. I have heard of same-sex couples applying for a visa to stay in Japan with both being non-Japanese and getting visas to support this application, but they are being quiet about it for political reasons, it seems. But if it is the case of Japanese and non-Japanese, (the government) won’t do this.”

More on this story at The Japan Times.

(Image Credit: Mustapha Mokrane, via The Japan Times)

Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity
Osaka delays decision on establishment of ordinance banning hate speech, which would be the first of its kind in Japan
  • The municipal council of Japan’s third-largest city has been considering an ordinance that would criminalize hate speech motivated by race or national origin.
  • It has delayed its final decision as some assembly members have expressed concerns over free speech infringement, choosing instead to join the more than 100 other local governments who have issued legally nonbinding statements.
  • If approved, the ordinance would likely establish a five-member council to review hate speech allegations; if found guilty, perpetrators would be named on the city website and victims could receive financial assistance for legal aid.

“In recent years, hate speech directed at foreigners in Japan with a specific nationality has taken place, creating concern about human rights problems involving foreigners. In the streets of Osaka as well, demonstrations involving hate speech have frequently occurred.”

More on this story at The Japan Times.

Gender
Federal appeals court upholds Texas restrictions on abortion providers, worrying reproductive rights advocates
  • The U.S. 5th Court of Appeals has ruled that the requirement that clinics meet ambulatory surgical center standards (including infrastructural requirements) does not impose undue burden on such clinics.
  • With only a handful of clinics meeting those standards, many clinics face closure unless they are able to make the costly upgrades.
  • In its lawsuit against the state, the Center for Reproductive Rights asked for exemptions for two clinics from the requirement that doctors have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles from the clinic, which was granted to one of the two.

“The 5th Circuit has once again put their political ideology above the law and failed to recognize that HB 2 is an undue burden on Texans’ access to safe, legal and timely abortion. … Your zip code should not determine your health care.”

More on this story at the Texas Tribune.

(Image Credit: Todd Wiseman/Texas Tribune)

Sexual + Gender Minorities
Arkansas judge rules marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples must be recognized by state administration after suit filed by couples denied recognition
  • The Department of Finance and Administration (under Director Larry Walther) had refused to recognize two gay couples’ marriage in tax and medical insurance processing, prompting the suit.
  • The State defense relied on a belief that Judge Chris Piazza did not have the authority to apply the clarifying order he released on May 15, 2014, opening up marriage licenses to same-sex couples retroactively to his original ruling on May 9.
  • The state ended its issuance of licenses to same-sex couples once Pizza’s ruling was appealed on May 16 and is now waiting on the pending Supreme Court decision.

“With shameless disrespect for fundamental fairness and equality, Director Walther insists on treating the marriages of same-sex couples who received marriage licenses … as ‘void from inception as a matter of law.’”

More on this story at Arkansas Online.

(Image Credit: Arkansas Online)

Sexual + Gender Minorities
Mexico’s Supreme Court paves way for nationwide marriage equality, though battles remain
  • Being the fifth of its kind from the Court, the ruling last Wednesday on a case from the state of Colima has crossed the threshold necessary for it to be considered “generic jurisprudence,” or binding on all national judges.
  • While most of Mexico’s 31 states have seen rulings in favor of same-sex marriage, they have typically been applied only to the plaintiff couples.
  • However, the ruling only applies to judges, so were registrars to refuse to issue a marriage license to same-sex couples, the couples would have to sue in order to gain the license and federal judges would have to rule five times in order to nullify local marriage code fully.

“The law of whatever federal entity that, on the one hand, considers the goal of marriage is procreation and/or defines marriage as celebrating the union of a man and a woman is unconstitutional.”

More on this story at BuzzFeed.

(Image Credit: Justine Zwiebel for BuzzFeed News with research assistance from Rex Wockner)

Age, Religion + Belief
Pope Francis establishes new department investigating child abuse cover-ups within the Catholic Church
  • The Pope approved the proposals increasing bishop accountability submitted by Cardinal Sean O’Malley, head of the special advisory commission convened to investigate sexual abuse by Church leaders.
  • The unit will be housed within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which defends the Church against heresy.
  • The new measures follow increased international calls for policy changes in the Vatican’s approach to the sexual abuse of minors, including the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the UN Committee Against Torture.

More on this story at Deutsche Welle.

(Image Credit: Deutsche Welle)

Nationality + Migration
New South African visa regulations produce ambivalent response in the travel community
  • The new regulations include an unabridged birth certificate for traveling minors and biometric applications.
  • The birth certificate measure hopes to curb child trafficking, but industry officials express worry over growth slowdown and access issues in places like India and China where difficulties emerge with completing biometric applications.
  • In addition, South African aviation officials note economic problems with some of the national carrier’s longhaul routes (including to Beijing and Argentina), potentially constraining South Africans’ own mobility.

“I cannot criticise the reason for wanting an unabridged birth certificate, but in the global village we live in we compete, for instance, with Kenya for wild life safaris…It is, therefore, a complex issue and I wish it did not have a direct impact. I am not an expert on the issue, but from an airline standpoint I think it will have a negative impact.”

More on this story at Fin 24.

(Image Credit: Fin 24)

Nationality + Migration
The NY Times has published a graphically enhanced look at the global migration crisis that is being called the worst since World War II
  • 38 million have been displaced within their own countries, while 16.7 million refugees have fled internationally.
  • Roughly 11 million Syrians and 3 million Iraqis have been internally displaced, while 4 million Syrians have left the country, straining the intake abilities of neighboring countries like Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey.
  • Approximately 25,000 Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants have been trafficked via sea in Southeast Asia, some finding conditional acceptance in Indonesia and Malaysia and others being repatriated.
  • To date, around 78,000 have traveled across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa and Turkey, fleeing violence, persecution, and poor economic prospects in North, West, and East Africa.
  • Finally, the conflict in Ukraine has displaced 1.3 million inside the country and sent 867,000 abroad, mostly to Russia with few European countries willing to accept them.

More on this story at The New York Times.

Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity
Israel’s controversial plan to resettle the Palestinians of the Susiya community moves forward following high court ruling
  • The resettlement–the third such kind of the Khirbet Susiya community in the last thirty years–involves expropriating the land from the Palestinians, who Israeli rights groups note have had documentary claims to it since 1830.
  • The Israeli government claims that while the Palestinians may own the land, they do not have the proper building permits; residents argue that the government rarely grants permits to non-Jews in Area C, where Susiya is located.
  • Similar to the Australian government’s arguments for indigenous resettlement, the Israeli government states that the displaced Palestinians will find better economic opportunity in their new location, a claim discredited by residents.

“Since the court ruling, people here have gone to bed not knowing whether the bulldozers would come in the morning. It is like trying to balance on a chair with only one leg and not knowing when you will fall off. People here are living on edge.”

More on this story at The Guardian.

(Image Credit: Peter Beaumont for the Observer, via The Guardian)

Age
Trans-ideological coalition works to reform truancy laws in Texas.
  • The alliance of government officials, policy analysts, and organizational leaders is pushing back against the more than 100,000 criminal charges brought against truant minors.
  • Convicted youth–disproportionately black and Latino–face fines and detention.
  • As Governor Greg Abbott prepares to take action on a reform proposal, leaders call for the redirection of resources towards prevention and intervention services.

“If Reggie was not in school, not the judge, not the school resource officer — Coach White got on the phone to find out why he wasn’t in school…If your truancy prevention ever gets to the courts, I look at that more as a system breakdown.”

More on this story at BuzzFeed.