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Conference on democracy and countering terrorism

4 May 2005

An international forum examining the impact of counter-terrorism security measures on democracy will be held at the Monash University Prato Centre in Italy in September.

From left: Associate Professor Colleen Lewis and Associate Professor Jenny Hocking with conference manager Ms Sara Cousins.

The two-day conference, 'Democracy at the crossroads? Counter-terrorism and the state', is being conducted by the National Centre for Australian Studies and Criminal Justice and Criminology within Monash's School of Political and Social Inquiry.

Issues to be covered include national counter-terrorism developments and the rise of the security state; the politics of global terror; torture, war crimes and the Geneva Convention; the creation of ‘non-citizens'; and the role of embedded journalists at home and abroad in the 'war on terror'.

Associate Professor Jenny Hocking and Associate Professor Colleen Lewis are convening the conference.

Dr Lewis said the forum had already attracted a field of distinguished lawyers, academics, public commentators, journalists and policy-makers.

"Although there have been many conferences concentrating on the extensive counter-terrorism laws and security developments since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, this is the first to take a look at the wider implications for the democratic state," she said.

Dr Hocking said that responding to global terrorism within the bounds of the rule of law and with regard for international human rights principles was an ongoing challenge for democratic nations.

"The conference will discuss and evaluate whether, in the current security environment, the democratic state has been severely compromised and whether we are witnessing the development of a new post-democratic era."

Major speakers at the conference will include:

  • Dr Marjorie (Mo) Mowlam, former British secretary of state for Northern Ireland
  • Ms Mary Robinson, first woman president of Ireland (1990--1997) and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
  • Mr Tariq Ali, author, academic, political activist and filmmaker
  • Professor John Keane, founder of the Centre for the Study of Democracy and professor of politics at the University of Westminster and Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin
  • Professor Sir Nigel Rodley, professor of law and former special rapporteur on torture of UN Commission on Human rights (1993--2001)
  • Mr John Pilger, filmmaker, journalist and author, and
  • Mr Lex Lasry QC, Australia's only independent legal expert observer to military commission proceedings at Guantanamo Bay.

For information, visit the Democracy at the Crossroads website.