On August 22, the UN marks the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief, a day designated by the UN for states to step up their efforts to combat intolerance, discrimination and violence against persons based on religion or belief. Establishing the day was a direct response to the ever-growing issue of violence based on religion or belief, including in their most severe manifestations of international crimes, as crimes against humanity, war crimes and even genocide.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Do we need new laws to protect religious freedom in Australia?
Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO – formerly a member of the Ruddock Religious Freedom Review – delivered the sixth annual Barry O’Keefe Memorial Lecture at the Australian Catholic University in North Sydney on Wednesday, 19 February 2020. This is an edited version of that lecture.
January 27: International Holocaust Remembrance Day
People of all faiths around the world mark January 27 as Holocaust Remembrance Day, an annual time to remember the murder of more than six million Jews and others in Nazi Death Camps during World War II.
“Never again! Never again… In front of this appalling tragedy, indifference is inadmissible, and remembrance is a duty.”
Australia: 2019 Human Rights Day Oration
The Hon Peter McClellan AM QC delivered the 2019 Human Rights Day Oration. His co-orator was Ms Chrissie Foster, mother of two girls who experienced child sexual abuse. “I cannot comprehend how any person, much less one with qualifications in theology and very often further qualifications from recognised universities, could consider the rape of a child to be a moral failure but not a crime,” The Hon Peter McClellan said.
