Veronika Wild

Remembering Argentina's Disappeared [Apologies, I don't know the source of this image] August is 30 th is the Day we remember the victims of enforced disappearance . Here we are mostly talking about government sponsored or condoned disappearances. There isn’t a region in the world which doesn’t have them and to their shame, 118 out of 193 UN member countries have not yet signed the Convention on the Prevention of Enforced Disappearances. In broad terms, this Convention adopted in 2010 covers the following points: Enforced Disappearance means the arrest, detention abduction or other forms of deprivation of liberty or concealing the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person. No exceptional circumstances - not war, nor internal political instability, can be invoked to justify such actions. UN member states have a duty to prevent enforced disappearance, to investigate all allegations and to prosecute those responsible. Victims and their families have a right to justice, r...

-Image by Roel Wijnants licenced under CC ND Saturday, 27 April 2024 I had hoped to finish on a happier note this month, but this weekend women all over Australia have been marching in protest at yet another murder of a mother and her three children. Quite a few men have been marching too, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.  Many are calling for a Royal Commission, but I have little faith. The Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody which ran from 1987 to 1991, resulted in 399 recommendations, very few of which have been implemented with the result that 470 Aboriginal people have died in custody since. The huge expense involved could have been better spent improving conditions for Australia’s indigenous people instead. Much the same can be said with respect to the Royal Commission into Aged Care in 2018. It too, revealed many tragic stories of abuse and neglect and resulted in a large number of recommendations, but again, so far very little has changed, though no...