Devon Whittle » Human Rights

Stop Genocide's 2008 Awards for World's Worst Human Rights Abusers

devonwhittle — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 03:27:10 +0000

Change.org’s Stop Genocide blog has a list of awards for 2008’s worst human rights abusers and their enablers. Praying for change in 2009! Stop Genocide's 2008 Awards for World's Worst Human Rights Abusers is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com. Related posts:Human Rights Charter limiting rights? USA withdraws from the UN Human [...]

Stop Genocide's 2008 Awards for World's Worst Human Rights Abusers is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Working for the Defense in IHL

devonwhittle — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:56:41 +0000

Over at Opinio Juris Kevin Heller outlines why he is advising the Karadzic defense team at the ICTY. The ethics of defense for war crimes and crimes against humanity can be tough to nut out, we are seeing a similar problem over in India trying to get representation for an accused Mumbai shooter. Heller lays out good reasoning behind working for those most people “know” are guilty.

Working for the Defense in IHL is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Universal Human Rights Index of UN Documents

devonwhittle — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:49:23 +0000

I’m bookmarking The Universal Human Rights Index of UN Documents looks like it could be a good resource for later. Information wants to be free.

Universal Human Rights Index of UN Documents is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Gans Quote on Victorian Judges and the Charter

devonwhittle — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 22:37:09 +0000

Reading Charterblog can really lower your faith in the legislature and judiciary, but does give rise to some great quotes: Devine and Legg will no doubt see the non-application of the Charter as another instance of the conspiracy of Freemasons and the like out to protect the supposed pedophiles of Ordo Templi Orientis. Alas, as readers of this blog well know, the real explanation is much more mundane and much more disturbing: Victorian judges simply cannot read.

Gans Quote on Victorian Judges and the Charter is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Animation for the 60th Anniversary of the UDHR

devonwhittle — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:25:19 +0000

Seth Brau has put together this excellent animation to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for the Human Rights Action Center – a group trying to raise awareness of the UDHR.

They say less than 5% of people even know of the existence of the UDHR, the Human Rights Action Center is asking people to ask their governments to print the UDHR in every passport. It’s an interesting idea and one that would raise awareness of human rights generally.

Of the course the UDHR itself has little direct legal effect – though it can be useful when interpreting other human rights instruments – even under international law. Perhaps the next step will be to start promoting the ICCPR/ICESCR, which bind signatories?

Animation for the 60th Anniversary of the UDHR is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Gans on the Charter Moot

devonwhittle — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 06:30:10 +0000

Gans has got his take on the recent Charter Moot on his blog. My team came runners up in the end, but I thought we did a great job. I’ve got a comment over there on what he said, but also should add that as a team we did some very serious legal thinking in a very short period of time, it was quite fun (in a stressful law student sort of way). Presenting our crazy ‘novel argument’ in the semi-finals was great fun, and defending polygamy in the grand final was even better – if you want to know about loopholes over polygamous marriage just let me know.

Gans on the Charter Moot is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Interesting Charter Application to BAE Systems Case

devonwhittle — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:12:30 +0000

Gans takes us through a wild ride of Charter interpretation in VCAT over the BAE Systems Case, which dealt with the USA’s discriminatory national security hiring policy. So we’ve got a badly drafted Charter, being applied in a terrible manner. What good can come of this? I particularly like how VEOHRC submission to VCAT supported BAE’s discrimination by reading the Charter wrong.

Interesting Charter Application to BAE Systems Case is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Clay Shirky on information overload, filter failure and personal privacy

devonwhittle — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 04:38:02 +0000

Here’s a good video of Clay Shirky discussing information overload, rethinking it as filter failure. He makes the point that ‘information overload’ has been around since Gutenberg, and it is really a problem of not using/having proper filters to deal with information. More interesting is his discussion of privacy using the story of his friend breaking off an engagement on Facebook and trying to control how that information spread through her social network. Whereas prior to Facebook imperfect information distribution was a feature, not a bug, of our natural social networks, now information spreads instantaneously when you update your profile forcing us to rethink how we ‘curate’ our online lives.

Even more interesting, for me, is what he was kind of incidentally discussing – what makes these new online spaces different. For me the major new issue online social networks, blogs, etc, have created is the conversion of what was once transient conversations, information and publications into permanent ones. The minute I publish this blog it will available for all on this site, and soon cached on Google, Web Archive and a huge number of other scrapers that copy my content (with and without my permission). Similarly, twitter updates and facebook status updates and uploaded photos hang around a long time, even embarrassing ones. I’m not sure we’ve quite adapted to what that means for us in the long term.

Clay Shirky on information overload, filter failure and personal privacy is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Eichmann, Mossad and more

devonwhittle — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 02:18:44 +0000

Opinio Juris links to an interesting interview with a former Mossad agent who was involved in snatching Eichmann from Argentina in 1960. They were so close to Mengele too, but didn’t have the numbers to successfully catch both.

Eichmann, Mossad and more is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Common Law Driver's Licence?

devonwhittle — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:15:55 +0000

Very funny post from Gans on “common law driver’s licences” and the freedom of movement under the Charter. UPMART, an “association for human rights and much, much more” thinks they shouldn’t need to get a driver’s licence to be allowed to drive their care. Fantastic.

Common Law Driver's Licence? is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.