Mary Anne Kenny

Iran’s brave players have stood tall. Now Australia must stand with them Both Australia and the Asian Football Confederation are being tested, not just on the pitch, but on whether they will protect the basic rights of athletes who have already shown immense courage.

Our best wishes go out to the members of Iran’s women’s football team granted protection in Australia.

Team members could face serious repercussions at home after acts seen as dissent. @sydmorningherald.bsky.social @danghez.bsky.social @maryannekenny.bsky.social

www.smh.com.au/national/ira...

Iran’s brave players have stood tall. Now Australia must stand with them Both Australia and the Asian Football Confederation are being tested, not just on the pitch, but on whether they will protect the basic rights of athletes who have already shown immense courage.

Brave on the pitch. Uncertain off it.

@danghez.bsky.social & @maryannekenny.bsky.social argue Australia must ensure Iran’s women footballers can safely decide their future if returning home could put them at risk.

Read in the @sydmorningherald.bsky.social: www.smh.com.au/national/ira...

Iran’s brave players have stood tall. Now Australia must stand with them Both Australia and the Asian Football Confederation are being tested, not just on the pitch, but on whether they will protect the basic rights of athletes who have already shown immense courage.

"Every player must be seen privately, informed of her rights, and given genuine access to independent legal advice, free from surveillance and free from coercion" Important analysis from @kaldorcentre.bsky.social Director Daniel Ghezelbash & @maryannekenny.bsky.social
www.smh.com.au/national/ira...

Time is running out for the Iranian women’s football team as fears for their safety grow | Jack Snape There are urgent calls for Australia to take action before the team return to Iran but with no word from the players themselves the situation is fraught and uncertain

What protections exist if athletes fear persecution at home?

Kaldor Centre Director @danghez.bsky.social speaks to @theguardian.com about the safety fears facing the #Iran women's national football team and the legal obligations that may arise for Australia.
www.theguardian.com/football/202...

New report calls for overhaul of flawed age assessment process for unaccompanied children - Free Movement A briefing on the National Age Assessment Board raises concerns about poor decision making in the age determination process, putting hundreds of children at

From last week: New report calls for overhaul of flawed age assessment process for unaccompanied children | Jasmine Quiller-Doust

How to look after your mental health right now if you have family in the Middle East or another conflict zone In times like these, validation, human connection and support are some of the best things you can do to protect your own and other people’s mental health.

People with emotional ties to the Middle East may experience distress watching unfolding events. Global catastrophic events have local significance and impact, alongside concern about the safety of loved ones. Here is a short piece that some may find helpful. theconversation.com/how-to-look-...

'Shabana Mahmood’s Asylum Plans Will Put Lives at Risk for No Purpose' The Government talks about wanting to reduce division and increase integration and then implements policies which will do the complete opposite, argues Daniel Sohege

"The most important part of the international refugee protection order is the principle that it provides protection."
My piece for @bylinetimes.bsky.social on how inhumane and counterproductive Labour's latest changes to the asylum system are in every possible way.
bylinetimes.com/2026/03/03/s...

How to look after your mental health right now if you have family in the Middle East or another conflict zone In times like these, validation, human connection and support are some of the best things you can do to protect your own and other people’s mental health.

People with close personal or family connections to the Middle East may feel deep distress right now. Global crises are not distant for everyone. The short piece below written with and led by @nicholasprocter.bsky.social may offer some support.
theconversation.com/how-to-look-...

article 8bis of the rome statute of the international criminal court

continuation of article 8bis

posting, once again, the well-established definition of the crime of aggression in the rome statute for the ICC

Deaths of 22 children in Channel due to ‘catastrophic failure’ by UK and France, NGO says Project Play finds UK taxpayers are funding ‘record child fatalities’ and ‘repeated violence’ against children in northern France

Deaths in channel are preventable, but require governments to focus on ensuring people can seek asylum. It's repeatedly shown that hostile measures increase death tolls. Labour's decision to halt family reunification alone is already putting more children at risk.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Quite clearly the US-Israeli attacks are in breach of the prohibition of the use of force. There are two exceptions: a UNSC resolution (which we do not have) and self-defence /1

Unaccompanied foreign minors in Italy: Only a small fraction lived with foster families in 2025 A study recently published by UNICEF and the National Coordination of Care Communities (CNCA) has revealed that only 4 percent of the over 17,000 unaccompanied foreign minors hosted in Italy in 2025 l...

Only four percent of the over 17,000 unaccompanied foreign minors hosted in Italy in 2025 lived with a foster family, according to a new study by UNICEF and the National Coordination of Care Communities (CNCA).

www.infomigrants.net/en/post/6963...

Classic!

The Gambia rightly argues, as the IIFFMM also observed, that discriminatory denial of citizenship can be a part of the evidence of pattern in which one could infer genocidal intent.

I've been working on a bigger project on statelessness and genocide so I am watching this issue closely.

“They treat us like criminals”: racism at the France-UK border - Free Movement The dehumanising conditions facing refugees and asylum seekers in Calais, northern France, expose how racialised border practices including surveillance,

In case you missed it: “They treat us like criminals”: racism at the France-UK border | Haleemah Alaydi

Well said thank you for referencing ‘lethal hopelessness’ and giving an overall excellent answer evidence based response.

Kaldor Centre Director Daniel Ghezelbash on UK plans to restrict refugee status YouTube video by UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law

WATCH: The UK plans for refugee protection will harm people without achieving the govt's stated goals, according to the #auspol evidence, says
@danghez.bsky.social
on ABC News24.
youtu.be/d-6TCgMWgX8?... via
@YouTube

Women for Refugee Women : Morally and ethically bankrupt: Our response to the Government's announcement 17 November 2026 The Government has announced sweeping plans to overhaul refugee protection in the UK -  some of the most hostile we have seen in recent years. We are outraged, saddened, and extremely concerned.

🚨The Home Secretary said "illegal migration is dividing our country."

Let’s be clear: the only thing dividing our country is a politics devoid of humanity and compassion.

The plans announced today are a cruel political choice. It is #NotInOurName.

www.refugeewomen.co.uk/morally-and-...

1/🧵

Great commentary by @danghez.bsky.social from @kaldorcentre.bsky.social

Conor Gearty · Unwelcome Remnant: Erasing the Human Rights Act The Supreme Court is quietly editing the Human Rights Act out of existence. In cases where human rights cannot be...

“The current members of the Supreme Court, ten men and two women, all of them white, seem to regard the Human Rights Act as an unwelcome remnant of a past era.”

Prof Conor Gearty’s final essay in @lrb.co.uk is a painfully clear analysis of how the UK Supreme Court is depressing human rights norms.

Around the world, migrants are being deported at alarming rates – how did this become normalised? The US, UK and Australia are all expanding efforts to deport non-citizens, reframing the act of seeking asylum from a human right to a criminal act.

‘The recent expansion of detention and deportations reflects an accelerated criminalisation and punishment of non-citizens, tied to a rising authoritarianism across purportedly liberal Western countries.’ theconversation.com/around-the-w...

71.5% of current ICE detainees have no criminal convictions
tracreports.org/immigration/...

More than 150 lawyers and refugee NGOs report being ‘pressured into silence’ by far-right protesters At least two groups supporting UK asylum seekers have closed their offices after credible threats to their safety

More than 150 lawyers and refugee NGOs report being ‘pressured into silence’ by far-right protesters.
At least two groups supporting UK asylum seekers have closed their offices after credible threats to their safety
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Stories about cost-of-living often focus on Australians’ hip pockets. But what about the impact on our mental health? The National Mental Health Commission’s “report card” shows financial stress has taken a significant toll in recent years. theconversation.com/financial-st...

Horrors of Trump detention centre: Lisburn man tells his story after arrest for 'looking like a Mexican' A Co Antrim man lifted by US immigration police on an American street — in an incident he compared to a kidnapping — and then sent to a detention centre has described being deported back to Northern I...

Read Lee's account in full

Our letter to Parliamentarians regarding arrangement with Nauru The Refugee Council of Australia has written to Parliamentarians to express our opposition the Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (2025 Measures No. 1) Bill

We oppose the Government's Nauru arrangement and Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (2025 Measures No. 1) Bill 2025, that would allow for circumventing rules of natural justice and procedural fairness when deporting people to Nauru and other 3rd countries.
www.refugeecouncil.org.au/letter-nauru...

By sending non-visa holders to Nauru, Australia is shifting its responsibilities The non-citizens in the NZYQ group cannot be returned to their country of origin. But sending them to Nauru just pushes the issue onto a poorer country.

@maryannekenny.bsky.social and I have written a commentary unpacking the Australian government's new deal to send over 350 non-citizens from the NZYQ cohort to Nauru and the proposed laws to remove the requirement for procedural fairness of these decisions.

theconversation.com/by-sending-n...

By sending non-visa holders to Nauru, Australia is shifting its responsibilities The non-citizens in the NZYQ group cannot be returned to their country of origin. But sending them to Nauru just pushes the issue onto a poorer country.

A quick brief analysis of the ongoing arrangement to send people to Nauru, co-written with @lisa-vantoor.bsky.social theconversation.com/by-sending-n...

Politicians have scapegoated immigration for decades. It’s time to flip the script Anti-immigration rallies across Australia are the culmination of years of political scaremongering. But better immigration messaging could change the trajectory.

For decades now, public discourse about refugees and immigrants has become increasingly fractured, ugly and untrue. But just as government messaging has partly contributed to this situation, it could also help get us out of it. I explain how: theconversation.com/politicians-...

By sending non-visa holders to Nauru, Australia is shifting its responsibilities The non-citizens in the NZYQ group cannot be returned to their country of origin. But sending them to Nauru just pushes the issue onto a poorer country.

By sending non-visa holders to Nauru, Australia is shifting its responsibilities, write Kaldor Centre PhD @lisa-vantoor.bsky.social and affiliate @maryannekenny.bsky.social – an important piece to help you understand what's at stake in parliament this week
theconversation.com/by-sending-n...