RegNet in the News

Luigi Palombi on Lateline to discusses the case against patents on genes

Luigi Palombi on Lateline, Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Source: Lateline, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 29 September 2009

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Hilary Charlesworth on Bills of Rights

The widespread agreement on the importance of human rights in liberal democracies masks sharp differences between governments' methods of protecting these rights. What does a country gain by enacting a bill of rights? Do countries that lack bills of rights, like Australia, protect human rights as well as those, like the United States and Canada, that have them? Does it make a difference if such rights are written into a foundational government document, as they in the United States, or if they are at least ostensibily on par with all other legislation, as they are in the United Kingdom?

Hilary Charlesworth on Public Ethics Radio, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics

Source: Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, September 2009

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UN police peacekeeping

Policing is never easy even at the best of times. But policing in war zones and conflict zones is massively difficult.

Roderick Broadhurst on The Law Report, ABC National Radio

Source: ABC National Radio, 21 July 2009

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Afghanistan President says new Sharia law is under review

The Afghan President Hamid Karzai has attempted to allay international fears that the rights of the country's women are being dragged back to where they were under the Taliban. The President last week signed a law which says a woman has to have sex with her husband once every four days and can't leave home without him.

Susan Harris-Rimmer on The World Today, ABC Local Radio

Source: ABC Local Radio, 6 April 2009

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Dr. Bina D’Costa Speaks About War Crime Tribunal for Bangladesh

Bina D'Costa on VOANews, Voice of America

Note: Interview available in Bengali only

Source: Voice of America, 14 March 2009

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Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 60

Hilary Charlesworth talks on the history of the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on ABC Radio National's Rear Vision program, 7 December 2008.

Hilary Charlesworth on Rear Vision, ABC National Radio

Source: ABC Radio National, 7 December 2008

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Patent halts testing for breast cancer gene

A private company has asked public hospitals to stop testing for a breast cancer gene on the basis that they own the patent over the genetic mutation and the test. The move has sparked outrage amongst cancer experts in Australia. They say women who want to know whether they are genetically predisposed to breast cancer will have to pay more than $2000 for the test.

Luigi Palombi on AM, ABC Local Radio

Source: ABC Local Radio, 23 October 2008

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Consumer watchdog investigates gene company

The ACCC is investigating whether a threat by a private company to restrict the use of a genetic test for breast cancer contravenes the law. The company owns the patent to test for two breast cancer genes, and has told public hospitals it will take legal action if they don't stop conducting the test.

Luigi Palombi on The World Today, ABC Local Radio

Source: ABC Local Radio, 23 October 2008

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The Future of Human Rights in the 21st Century

It's 60 years this year since the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. After two years of hard work, and much consultation, the Declaration came into being on the 10th of December. 1948. According to Hilary Charlesworth, while the significance of the Declaration is profound it was, and remains, a radical and controversial document.

Hilary Charlesworth on Late Night Live, ABC National Radio

Source: ABC Radio National, 1 October 2008

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Patenting breast and ovarian cancer

Can you really claim to have invented cancer causing human DNA? Well according to the Australian Patent Office, yes you can. But aren't Australia patents only about inventions? Luigi Palombi, from the Regulatory Institutions Network investigates.

Luigi Palombi on Perspective, ABC Radio National

Source: ABC Radio National, 18 August 2008

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Free trade vs fair trade

It's an ideological battle between those who want a fairer, better deal for the poor farmers in the developing world - and those who say the best way to get that is having a world wide free market. There are fault lines in both arguments.

Anna Hutchens on Background Briefing, ABC Radio National

Source: ABC Radio National, 13 July 2008

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