29 November 2004

PM shouldn't sign away our right to criticise human rights abusers

The Greens are warning the Prime Minister against signing a non-interference pact with ASEAN, because it would inhibit New Zealand's ability to stand up publicly to human rights violators.

"We shouldn't sign away our right to speak out against human rights abuses in South East Asia," Green Foreign Affairs spokesperson Keith Locke said.

"Instead of joining ASEAN countries in a 'non-interference' declaration, we should be encouraging them to be more forthright about the need for political freedom.

"Our reasons for not signing the Amity and Cooperation Treaty are different from John Howard's. He claims, as America's deputy sheriff, the right of pre-emptive strike against Asian countries. We can assure ASEAN we are happy to sign the treaty's non-aggression clause, but we reserve the right to speak up when international human rights standards are violated.

"New Zealand should champion the rights of the downtrodden, whether it be in Burma, or in the Indonesian provinces of Aceh and West Papua. We can't stand by while people are killed, tortured and imprisoned."

"No ASEAN country is yet fully democratic. It would only slow progress on civil liberties for New Zealand to go soft now."

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>