The Melbourne Newsroom

Australian humanitarian and military law expert Professor Tim McCormack has been appointed as Special Adviser on International Humanitarian Law to Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Australian humanitarian and military law expert Professor Tim McCormack has been appointed as Special Adviser on International Humanitarian Law to Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The Oceanic Viking asylum seeker issue has barely caused a ripple of interest in Indonesia, where all the eyes are focussed on the biggest government corruption scandal in years, says Professor Tim Lindsey.  "It’s a little bit like America's Watergate scandal."

Eminent legal scholar and academic administrator Professor Michael Crommelin has accepted the role of Dean of the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne.

Victoria’s Charter of Human Rights will come under the spotlight at the annual Chancellor’s Human Rights Lecture at the University of Melbourne tomorrow.

Professor James Hathaway has announced his resignation as Dean of the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne from 1 February 2010 to return to full-time academic life.

The Prime Minister’s personal intervention to convince the Indonesian President to arrest and hold 260 Sri Lankans off Krakatoa Island this week smacks of the Howard administration’s program says the Dean of the Melbourne Law School, Professor James Hathaway.

Internationally respected global health and pandemics scholar Professor Lawrence Gostin will deliver the 2009 Miegunyah Public Lecture at the University of Melbourne on Wednesday, September 16.

The decision by the US Government this week to pass on names of all detainees in its secret detention centres to the Red Cross is a step in the right direction, according to Professor Gerry Simpson.  "We know that in secret sites like Bagram Air Base (Iraq) and Guantanamo Bay (Cuba) that some fairly nasty things can happen, and it’s the glare of publicity that prevents torture in many cases." 

To help commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions (established August 1949) the International Red Cross ran an essay competition on the importance of international humanitarian law.  The following is the winning essay by Sarah Horan, a final year Media & Communications/Law student at the University of Melbourne, on the the development of international humanitarian law since the establishment of the Geneva Conventions.