Seeking Justice | Discussion of Four Corners report 9 November

What are the options available to the Australian government for a humane approach to processing asylum seekers? Why are we building more detention facilities rather than focusing on moving asylum seekers out of detention?

Be part of the lively Seeking Justice debate on the 9th November and hear from leading experts The Hon Catherine Branson QC, John Menadue AO and Professor Louise Newman AM on their views for the future regarding asylum seekers in Australia.

Seeking Justice is an event aimed to inform, to debate and to raise funds for the Asylum Seekers Centre of NSW.

Seeking Justice panelist Professor Louise Newman spoke out yesterday following the ABC’s Four Corners horrifying report on self harm and suicide in detention centres:

“We need to have a radical rethink of the policy of mandatory and indefinite detention…we actually need to adhere to the policy and move out those people with mental health risk factors.”

The report revealed shocking evidence for a mental health crisis within detention centres, with detainees informing ABC’s Four Corners program that self-harm, suicide attempts and asylum seekers using antidepressants had become the norm

WATCH the Four Corners report here.

Seeking Justice

GILBERT + TOBIN
2 PARK STREET, SYDNEY
6pm – 8pm WEDNESDAY 9 NOVEMBER, 2011

REFRESHMENTS & DRINKS

TICKETS STRICTLY LIMITED SO PLEASE BOOK EARLY.

Payment $80 ($20 for entry and a tax deductible donation of $60)

To make a booking and for further information please contact Meredith Downes

Phone: 02 9361 5606 or Email: development@asylumseekerscentre.org.au

PANELISTS
John Menadue AO
John Menadue AO is a former Australian public servant with a distinguished career in both the private and public sectors. From 1974-1976 he was Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet where he worked for Prime Ministers Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser before moving to Japan as Australian Ambassador. He returned to Australia in 1980 to take up various departmental head positions including Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, the Department of the Special Minister of State, and the Department of Trade. John has also been a Director of Telstra, CEO of Qantas, a Director of the NSW State Rail Authority and Chairman of the Australia Japan Foundation. He is currently a Board Director of the Centre for Policy Development.

The Hon Catherine Branson QC
Catherine Branson was appointed President of the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2008 and in 2009 became the Human Rights Commissioner. She was previously a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia, a position she had held since 1994. Catherine is a past President of the Australian Institute for Judicial Administration, a member of the International Association of Judges and a member of the International Association of Refugee Law Judges. She was also Crown Solicitor of South Australia and CEO of the South Australian Attorney-General’s Department.

Professor Louise Newman AM
Professor Newman is Director of Developmental Psychiatry at Monash University, and former Director of the NSW Institute of Psychiatry. She is also Chair of the Detention Expert Health Advisory group, an independent advisory body for health and mental health of asylum seekers, and Convenor of the Alliance of Health Professionals for Asylum Seekers. She is involved in advocacy for the human rights of asylum seekers and particularly for children affected by the policy of mandatory detention.

Facilitator: Professor Ben Saul
Professor Ben Saul is Professor of International Law at the Sydney Centre for International Law, Sydney University, a barrister, internationally recognised as an expert on human rights and terrorism law and President of the Refugee Advice and Casework Service. He has been involved in human rights cases concerning South Africa, Peru, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Israel and Guantanamo Bay, including before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, United Nations Human Rights Committee, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and Israeli Supreme Court.

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Read the full CPD report, A New Approach: Breaking the Stalemate of Refugee & Asylum Seekers here.