Unesco: Australia mounts defence

Global bioethics at UNESCO: in defence of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights.

The Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights adopted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on 19 October 2005 is an important step in the search for global minimum standards in biomedical research and clinical practice. As a member of UNESCO International Bioethics Committee, I participated in the drafting of this document. Drawing on this ...

Lessons of Defence Housing Australia for affordable housing provision

Business pressure mounts

The British government is seeking to follow the US model of allowing universities to charge variable top-up tuition fees to students which may vary according to institution and course chosen. The prospect has fuelled a fierce debate with many of the government's own MPs opposed to the proposed changes. Both alarm bells among some academics and fresh hope for cash-strapped universities have been...

Freegate: A Defence against the Pending Censorship of Australia?

The commencement of a trial of Internet Service Provider (ISP) level content filtering as a precursor to nation-wide mandatory content filters in Australia has generated a large amount of publicity. Despite remaining low on details, figures released show that the laboratory testing of the filtering solutions caused significant slow-down in Internet speeds as well as the unintentional censorship...

Pressure mounts on policy restrictions

Following the Democratic primaries, the build-up to the US presidential election has begun and there is a growing call for changes to the science agenda.