Thursday, December 8, 2016

The Fish Rots from the Head Down

A Red Cross survey of 17000 people reveals that "nearly one quarter of Australians think torturing enemy soldiers is justifiable," and that "faith in the Geneva Convention is fading." (Faith in 'laws of war' slipping dangerously, says Red Cross, David Wroe, Sydney Morning Herald, 6/12/16)

Assuming that the average Australian even knows what the Geneva Convention is, given that we have a government which tortures asylum seekers,* and a foreign minister who once quipped, on the subject of  Israeli settlements being illegal under international law, "I would like to see which international law has declared them illegal,"** it would seem that we have here an open-and-shut case of the fish rotting from the head down.

[*"The Torture Convention prohibits subjecting people to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The [UN] report confirms that by leaving people locked up indefinitely in appalling conditions on a remote island, Australia is failing to meet this basic standard." (UN finds Australia's treatment of asylum seekers violates the Convention Against Torture, hrlc.org, 9/3/15);**See my 20/1/14 post Believe It or Not.]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This talk is coming from the same tired old group of Zionist apologist politicians who constantly talk about 'our values'.

Give us a break.

Do we subscribe to the Geneva Conventions or not?