An annual report on the civil rights of countries worldwide has downgraded Australia’s democracy from “open” to “narrowed”.
The CIVICUS Monitor is a collaboration between human rights organisations around the world, to assess the democratic freedoms of 196 countries.
In the 2019 report, Australia’s democratic ‘status’ dropped. This was due to recent police raids on media outlets, the growing trend of prosecuting whistleblowers like Witness K - and the increasing crackdown on peaceful protest.
The CIVICUS Monitor combines several different sources of data looking at things like the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and ‘expression’.
Countries are then given a ranking ranging from closed, repressed, obstructed, narrowed or open.
The Human Rights Law Centre is concerned about the findings.
“All of these restrictive policies add up. We need to draw a line in the sand and say ‘enough’,” said the Centre’s Campaigns Director Tom Clarke.
“Powerful politicians and their corporate backers don’t always respect the rights of individual people or communities,” he warned.
We need to create an Australian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms to help level the playing field.
The 2019 report took particular aim at legislation passed by Australian parliament this year that allows law enforcement authorities to force tech companies to hand over user information - even if it is protected by end-to-end encryption.
The report’s assessment of the Australian civic space is echoed in public opinion, with just 59 percent of Australian’s saying they are satisfied with how democracy is working.
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Australia is one of three countries that were downgraded in the Asia Pacific region in 2019, with India and Brunei going from obstructed to repressed.
In wider regions, Malta joined Australia in declining from an ‘open’ civic space to a ‘narrowed’ civic space.
The report also found that the percentage of the world’s population living in a ‘repressed’ democracy doubled in the last 12 months, to 40 per cent.
Countries categorised as ‘open’ decreased in the past year from 4 per cent in 2018 to 3 per cent in 2019.
As part of the research CIVICUS published a ‘watch list’ - countries where citizen’s rights are being actively infringed upon. Making the selection for 2019 were Colombia, Egypt, Guinea and Kazakhstan.
China was highlighted for the ongoing conflict in Hong Kong over the proposed extradition bill, and the continued mistreatment of protestors and journalists.
There were several brighter spots in this year’s report. Dominican Republic and Moldova were both updated in terms of civic freedom from ‘obstructed’ to ‘narrowed’.
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f1mmwolf on December 10th, 2019 at 07:52 UTC »
Media Raids: Australian Federal Police raid the ABC 2 years after it reported on war crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan
Whistle blowers: A former ASIS employee and his lawyer made it public that the Australian government had wire tapped the consulate in East Timor which then meant Australia had unfair advantage throughout the negotiations for ownership rights to one of the worlds largest natural gas deposits.
Secret Trials: A man, only known as Witness J was convicted and sentenced in recent secret trial. It is said he is a former Intelligence Officer who sought mental health treatment and was denied three times.
Strip Searches: Police in the state of New South Wales have come under criticism after strip searching of citizens, including minors, at concerts.
Our Prime Minister has called for outlawing boycotts, including secondary boycotts
Unions: The Prime Minister intends to remove any power unions have. He recently attempted to pass the "Ensuring Integrity Act" in the House of Representatives. The votes against won, but only just, and the Libs have sworn to re-introduce the Bill.
Privacy: AI camera's are being installed in some areas and even live streaming. This example from Perth Right to privacy? not anymore.
On the topic of privacy, the Australian government are seeking to amended the Assistance and Access Bill introduced in 2018, a law that essentially said telco's and technology companies that utilize encryption must provide complete access to law enforcement when it's requested. It has now come to pass that our encryption laws could disqualify us from an agreement under the US Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act. Because foreign governments need access to our Private data right?
edit: the last paragraph didn't read as intended, words out of place.
GotThemBabyLungs on December 10th, 2019 at 06:57 UTC »
Sure, they are raiding the homes of journalists, having secret trials of people and strip searching and video recording (without a parent present) children for drugs and plan on stopping people freely giving their opinions on religion and stopping people from boycotting products and companies they support ......but how goods the cricket ?
Wrathb0ne on December 10th, 2019 at 05:17 UTC »
With all the push with coal, my lungs have also been changed from “open” to “narrowed”