Human Rights Week 10 – 16 December 2020

During this week, RAR is showing videos from refugees about what Human Rights mean for them.  Please share these stories  Human Rights Week

Day 1:  Kaid from Iraq shares with Rural Australians for Refugees why we need an Australian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

You can support Kaid by sharing his story and signing.

RAR calls for a Charter of Human Rights

Seventy years ago the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was declared and Australia was a signatory.  Australia is also a signatory to the Universal declaration to the Rights of the Child and the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The Declaration of Human Rights states that all human beings are born free and equal and lists 30 articles which the government must respect because we are human. Australia is the only liberal democracy without a national Charter of Bill of rights.  It is long past time that we redressed this and modernized our system of government by introducing an Australia-wide human rights law. (Evatt Foundation.)

The ACT, Victoria and Queensland all of Human Rights Charters which cover their states but because the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not Australian Law the Australian Government is not bound by it.

The RAR Human Rights Sub-Committee have prepared a discussion paper for groups to use to start discussions and progress the campaign for a Charter of Human Rights in Australia.  20.10.01 Human Rights Discussion Paper

The Human Rights Law Centre are leading a campaign for a Charter.  35 organizations have signed up.  To find out more  and to sign up, check out their website .

For more information, please contact rar.australia@gmail.com 

 Prominent local activist dies at age 78

Redland City Bulletin

Local News

 OBITUARY: Dr Noel Preston AM social justice advocate, ethicist, academic, commentator and Uniting Church minister has died on October 22.

 Rev Dr Noel Preston

Prominent Redlands resident, Rev. Dr Noel Preston AM - social justice advocate, ethicist, academic, commentator and Uniting Church minister - died on October 22, after a long illness. He was 78.

The son of Rev. Arthur Preston, who established the Blue Nursing Service and other pioneering ventures at West End Methodist Mission in the 1950s, Noel Preston was a teacher before training for the Methodist ministry in Brisbane, being ordained in 1967.

His doctoral studies in ethics and public theology in the USA during the early 1970s set the stage for a vocation of grassroots social activism and academic research dedicated to concerns about discrimination, human rights, anti-discrimination, public ethics, economic justice and the environment.

For over 30 years from the mid-1970s, Dr Preston was a controversial but respected figure in social and political debates in Queensland, often drawing criticism from the conservative governments of the time over Aboriginal rights, industrial reform, sexual discrimination and nuclear disarmament.

He was instrumental in public sector reform in the wake of the Fitzgerald Inquiry in the 1980s, becoming a national leader in the teaching of public and professional ethics at QUT and Griffith University.

Author of various books, including the foundational text Understanding Ethics, Dr Preston became a Member of the Order of Australia for services to the community in the field of ethics in 2004.

Moving to Wellington Point in 2011 after retirement, Dr Preston was drawn into U3A Redlands and became a popular speaker and course leader on ethics issues and Life in Australia. He was co-founder of the U3A meditation course and, with his wife Olga Harris, part of the U3A Choir.

President of U3A Redlands Debra Barker said Dr Preston was highly regarded for his insightful teaching, masterful group leadership and kind, compassionate demeanour.

Dr Preston also co-founded Redlands for Refugees at Wellington Point Uniting Church in October 2013, a grassroots church and community group supporting refugees and advocating for humanitarian policies towards asylum seekers.

Redlands for Refugees president Lyn Moore said Dr Preston was an inspiring and committed activist who blended his knowledge of political ethics with practical compassion which saw him and Olga open their home to an Egyptian refugee for one year.

Dr Preston is survived by Olga, his three children and six grandchildren.

David Busch