To Answer a Question

Quite a few people have asked me how I'm going to reconcile my convictions and beliefs while taking a part in representing my country in defending its Human Rights record. This is a really interesting thing, and I've been thinking about it a lot. It was also a trick question in the interview of shortlisted candidates for the internship! To begin with, it's an internship offered through the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, and candidates are chosen based on their committment to advocacy and activism in Human Rights, both in Australia and overseas. So, implicitly, there will likely be some conflict between the viewpoints of the intern, and the stance they will be requested to represent during the Commission. I figure the solution to dealing with this will be multi faceted - a combination of putting aside my preconceived ideas, talking to people and finding out the rationale behind what they think, framing Australia's situation (and HR record) in a global context, and coming to a deeper understanding of the huge complexities involved with governing human rights on an international level. It will be very interesting. I'll let you know how I go...!

Also, it's possible that I won't be alone in this struggle. I got an email this week from a guy from Adelaide Uni called Stuart. He and I are the 2 (i think) interns to the Australian delegation. He told me that this year he plans to write an Honours thesis for Law on the case of Plaintiff S157. This is a really important case in administrative law, where the High Court absolutely canned s474 of the Migration Act. s474 is what's called a 'privative clause' - a section which aims to cut out any court's ability to review decisions. It's very complicated, but basically the High Court made a very controversial decision, which a lot of people saw as bending the law until it said what they wanted it to say. Aaah the sweetness of judicial creativity...! So Stuart will PROBABLY either be highly critical of the High Court's approach to the decision, or very much in favour of it. It'll be interesting to see which! Basically I think you HAVE to be passionate about the question, to want to write a thesis in Admin law...! Phew.

Above is a photo of all the Castan Centre interns for 2005-06. Linda (far left) and Sophie (far right) are completing internships at Human Rights First in New York, and Shahaan (front right) is at the Asian Commission for Human Rights in Hong Kong. To read more about the gals you can click on this link to the Castan Centre page: http://www.law.monash.edu.au/castancentre/internships/global-intern-program.html

Happy reading!