International
Co-operation for
Human Security
This theme offers an opportunity for participants with an interest in politics and international relations to discuss the means for creating a safer and more harmonious world. Issues of contemporary concern such as how to build democracy and combat terrorism will be addressed. Panel sessions will provide case studies of particular conflicts such as international agreements governing the Timor Gap and conflict resolution in Sri Lanka.
Speakers include:
- Stephen, Sir. Ninian - Keynote. International Law in Search of International Peace.
- Allan, Amanda - 'No Way Back? Psychological Perspectives On The Identity Of Volunteers Returning From First Time Humanitarian Aid Missions.
- Backwell, Jim - An Ounce Of Prevention: International Humanitarian Law Dissemination In Times Of Armed Conflict And Peace.
- Balint, Jennifer - Law's Constitutive Possibilities: Genocide, State Crime And Reconciliation.
- Camilleri, Joe - Citizenship In A Globalising World: The Role Of Civilisation Dialogue.
- Carew, Susan - Is Nonviolence The Solution In Creating A Durable World Peace?
- Do, Thanh - 'Unity In Diversity': Outcomes From The World Peace Forum.
- Fifer, Dimity - AVI's Experience Of Post-Conflict Areas.
- Galligan, Brian - Citizenship, Complexity And Reconciliation.
- Kolieb, Jonathan - The Role Of Diaspora Communities In Resolving Conflicts In Their Homelands.
- McLeod, Jason - Towards A New Consent Theory Of Power: How Solidarity Movements Can Maximise The Effectiveness Of Nonviolent Struggle.
- Murray, Philomena - Is The EU A Model For Interstate Cooperation?
- Patience, Allan - States As Dinosaurs: Globalization And The Decline Of The Sovereign State.
- Resnick, David - Humanizing The Enemy: A Case Study In Jewish Moral Education.
- Triggs,
Gillian
- Creative Conflict Resolution: The New Timor Sea Treaty Between Australia
And East Timor.
Sir Ninian Stephen - - KG AK GCMG GCVO KBE
Sir Ninian Stephen's keynote address explores the growth of humanitarian concern and of resultant developments in international law during the 20th century. A particular focus is given to the birth and development of international tribunals designed both to resolve dispute between nations and to enforce respect for human rights.
Following
a distinguished legal career, Sir Ninian was appointed to the Victorian
Supreme Court bench in 1970 and in 1972 appointed a justice of the High
Court of Australia. He retired from the High Court of Australia in 1982
to take up the appointment as Governor-General of Australia, which office
he held until 1989. Sir Ninian was appointed Australia's first Special
Ambassador for the Environment, Chairman of various Australian government
and other bodies including the Constitutional Centenary Foundation, the
Antarctic Foundation, and was chairman of the National Library of Australia
for six years and chairman of the Australian Banking Industry Ombudsman
Council for four years. He was appointed in 1992 by the United Kingdom
and Republic of Ireland governments as Chairman of Strand Two of the Talks
on Northern Ireland and in 1993 as a judge of the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
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'No Way Back? Psychological Perspectives On The Identity Of Volunteers Returning From First Time Humanitarian Aid Missions.
This paper will address some of the psychosocial adjustment issues experienced by medical aid volunteers returning from the field and reporting a sense of no longer belonging to the home context from which they departed for mission.
This presentation aims to describe aspects of the 'coming home' phenomenon from a social constructionist perspective rather than from a clinical framework, normalising the experiences of volunteers who find it difficult to find their place again amidst a Westernised, materialistic and pleasure seeking society.
Based on
qualitative research currently being conducted in the Psychology Department
at the University of Melbourne, this presentation will give insight into
a more contextual and existential interpretation of the experience of
medical humanitarian aid volunteers over time in their post-mission period
through analysis of their constructed and changing perspectives of their
international field and home identities. Implications for preparing and
debriefing medical personnel in relation to their post-field experiences
will be drawn.
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An Ounce Of Prevention - International Humanitarian Law Dissemination In Times Of Armed Conflict And Peace.
The Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, ('the Movement') is the largest humanitarian network in the world. Involving over 96 million volunteers, the Movement works to prevent and alleviate suffering in times of natural disaster and armed conflict. It is made up of 179 National Societies, the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC is present in over 80 armed conflicts across the globe. It is an impartial, neutral and independent organisation that has an exclusively humanitarian mission. The prevention of war or the creation of peace is not its mandate. Humanitarian action, from a Red Cross perspective, is not designed to resolve the conflict but to protect human dignity and save lives.
But does the ICRC and the Movement as a whole, have a role to play in peace making, keeping or building? The answer is yes. While Red Cross humanitarian work must never be used for political action, its secondary effects may prevent conflict breaking out or resuming. International Humanitarian Law is the basis of our action. IHL is about the protection of victims of armed conflict and the limitations on methods of warfare required in instruments such as the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols. The dissemination and communication of IHL is a core responsibility of the Movement. Dissemination of IHL attempts to influence the behaviour of combatants demanding that they must protect the victims of armed conflict.
This paper
reflects on the role of IHL dissemination in peace making and building
from theoretical and practical perspectives. The practical reflections
will review the author's work in dissemination in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip to Palestinian civilians. The successes and failures of dissemination
to an audience who has experienced 36 years of occupation will be explored.
The Australian Red Cross involvement in military exercises with the Australian
Defence Force, in peacetime, will also be considered. This paper will
articulate the role that a civilian organisation such as the Red Cross
can have in influencing military training and doctrine. The conclusions
drawn underline how critical dissemination of IHL and the promotion of
humanitarian values are in attempting to prevent atrocities and the consequent
exacerbation of conflict.
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Law's Constitutive Possibilities: Genocide, State Crime And Reconciliation.
Law is increasingly playing a role in the wake of state crime and political change within societies. This is across the spectrum: from providing redress for massive crimes committed by the state against its own citizens (for example, genocide), to addressing long-standing crimes of dispossession and discrimination (for example, apartheid and Indigenous dispossession), to playing a central role in regime change and institutionalisation of the new system of governance (for example, in post-communist Eastern Europe and in the wake of military rule in South America). There is also an increasing expectation that legal processes will play a role in reconciliation and reconstruction.
The paper
will discuss the claim made in regard to legal proceedings for genocide
and other forms of state crime that these post-conflict proceedings contribute
to the establishment of processes of reconstruction, in particular, reconciliation.
The paper, with reference to a series of case studies, will examine this
expectation of law. The case studies examined are the Armenian genocide
1915-1918, the Holocaust 1933/9-1945, Cambodia (Democratic Kampuchea)
1975-1979, South Africa 1948-1991, Ethiopia 1974-1991, Rwanda 1994, former
Yugoslavia 1992-1994. The paper discusses the relationship between law
and reconstruction in the wake of state crime, in particular the constitutive
function of law in the wake of genocide and other forms of state crime.
It concludes with some observations as to when this constitutive space
is opened, and when it is blocked.
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Citizenship In A Globalising World: The Role Of Civilisation Dialogue.
The paper attempts to sketch a new conception of citizenship that responds to the needs of human security in the age of globalisation.
It begins by revisiting the theory of citizenship as it emerged during the Enlightenment and subsequently evolved in the context of the western liberal democratic state. Particular attention focuses on the notion of political community, to which 'citizens' belong and from which they derive both rights and obligations. Critical questions to be explored here include:
- What is the precise relationship between community and individual postulated by the notion of citizenship?
- How does it reconcile the liberal conception of freedom with the more radical idea of equality?
- How are civil and political rights reconciled with social and economic rights, and individual with collective rights?
- What is the assumed relationship between state and civil society?
The paper then proceeds to ask how well equipped these notions of citizenship are to handle the vastly altered social, economic and political conditions that we associate with the contemporary world, understood as the post-colonial world of rapid technological change, economic globalisation, shrinking distances and time scales, and the increasing lethality of violence. The analysis here centres on four distinct but closely interconnected imbalances (psycho-social, institutional, economic and ecological) that characterise the contemporary human predicament.
Though still a valuable intellectual and political tool, citizenship, as traditionally conceived and applied, the paper concludes, is in need of considerable reconceptualisation. Can our rich and diverse civilisational inheritance make a useful contribution? The citizen can no longer be understood as pure universal abstraction. On the other hand, the very attempt to set the individual in a concrete religious/cultural/civilisational setting or current raises complex questions on the relationship between material unification and cultural differentiation.
Several questions
immediately arise: Can 'civilisational dialogue' play a useful role in
addressing the imbalances identified above? To what extent, if at all,
can it contribute to a global discourse that places 'citizenship' in a
new light? Can it help to ground citizenship in a new conception of governance
that is not territorially exclusive, and develops a new approach to peace-making
and peace-building? The possible contribution of civilisational dialogue
to this enterprise is examined and critically evaluated with respect to
five key categories: commonality, complementarity, difference, reconciliation
and legitimate governance.
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Is Nonviolence The Solution In Creating A Durable World Peace?
This paper explores the origins of non-violence through the hearts and minds of ancient masters such as Lao Tsu, Buddha and Jesus. It unveils the deeper truths emanating from the human spirit of non-violence as an outpouring of love, truth, good over evil, self suffering, service, non-possession, simplicity and freedom. The paper highlights pacifism, the opposition to war and the focus on nuclear weapons. The peace movements have highlighted their opposition but have not taken their struggle further in addressing the underlying causes of violence and war. Modern nonviolent action is discussed and the focus on nonviolent techniques, acceptance of coercion and the importance of achieving the ends. This is contrasted with Gandhian Satyagraha and the use of values such as truth and nonviolence (ahimsa) as the means to the end with the objective of conversion of the opponent. Gandhi's philosophy is compared with the ancient masters and the intent to remove violence in thought, word and deed.
The paper argues that disputes need to be resolved at their root rather than by an enforced peace. Real peace is argued to embody the deeper spiritual values exhibited in the virtues of the masters of antiquity. The essence of violence springs from self-ignorance and lack of love.
It is argued that to create a global democratic civil society there must be a radical shift in the way people live and see themselves. This requires an indomitable will and commitment to create a nonviolent society by educating the public in constructive self-empowerment.
In Gandhi's
opinion the world has a choice between nonviolence and violence. In the
wake of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, Japan, he states that 'unless
now the world adopts nonviolence it will spell certain suicide for mankind'.
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'Unity In Diversity': Outcomes From The World Peace Forum.
Be
the change you wish to see in the world -
Mahatma Gandhi
On March 29 2003, leaders from different backgrounds came together to offer inspiring and practical advice for world peace - peace between individuals, peace between communities, peace between religions, and peace between nations. The event was called the World Peace Forum 2003, and was held at the Darling Harbour Convention Centre in Sydney. The event brought representatives from many different religions, environmental groups and political persuasions under the same roof, to express understanding for each other, discuss the roots of violence and the sources of peace in our troubled world, and to show solidarity for peace. This anecdotal paper summarises some of the main messages and conclusions from the Forum, which was attended by over 800 delegates from Australia and around the world.
The Forum itself was an extraordinary display of tolerance, respect and understanding, with an array of people from all ages and walks of life in attendance. Rather than simply criticising the war on Iraq, the speakers focussed on discussing the root causes of war in the hearts and minds of humanity. There was a common thread that weaved through the majority of presentations of the need for cross-cultural dialogue and peace education to build peace in our society, and the need to reclaim from the different spiritual and religious traditions the virtues of compassion, understanding and sharing.
The purpose
of this paper is to pass on some of the key messages and agreed outcomes
of the 2003 World Peace Forum, which it is hoped we can each learn from,
embrace, and change within as a result. It is also to give testimony to
the value of cross-cultural and inter-faith dialogues, and to stress that
dialogue is not a luxury, but a necessity if we are to work for a peaceful
and sustainable future. The paper highlights four main lessons learned
from the Forum, drawing from the testimonies of the speakers: (a) the
need for diversity, (b) peaceful dialogues, (c) the role of education,
and (d) universal spiritual values of compassion, understanding and sharing.
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AVI's Experience Of Post-Conflict Areas.
In defining
the efficacy of a program or development intervention, values such as
solidarity, respect and dignity come forward again and again as the 'interventions'
or 'outcomes' deemed most effective and lasting by Australian Volunteers
when working in post-conflict zones. Engineers built roads, doctors treated
patients, managers mobilised funds, yet frequently regarded these considerable
achievements as superficial compared to the empowerment and rebuilding
of peoples hope and capacity to plan and look forward and see a future
for themselves and their communities. Post-conflict hotspots such as East
Timor, Cambodia and Afghanistan witness extraordinary influxes of resources
and expertise. In the rush to expend and being seen to act, local stakeholders
are often left behind because of their perceived 'lack of capacity' and
inability to take decisions appropriate to addressing 'the bigger picture'.
The momentum of the international community to action can disempower and
run counter to the experience and needs of the local population, where
long-running conflict has ruptured community, self-confidence, decision-making,
and the ability to trust 'strangers'. By utilising the accumulated learning
of Australian Volunteer assignments in post-conflict areas, this paper
will focus on what it is that local communities most value in post-conflict
situations. What are the essential ingredients to an effective response
post conflict? How does the international community best shape a response
to a situation that will lay the foundations to empowerment and prosperity
for the communities that they have mobilised in support of. Finally, the
paper will assess the possibilities when developing qualitative indicators
to measure what our experience tells us that communities value most highly
- reconciliation, trust, the confidence to plan for the future.
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Citizenship, Complexity and Reconciliation
During the twentieth century, citizenship was commonly understood as exclusive membership of a sovereign nation state, and the exclusivity of the nation state was buttressed with a particularistic nationalism. The consequence was often to exaggerate national differences and sharpen international antagonisms. While this is being reversed in response to globalization, there is a counter tendency within domestic policy to use exclusivist classifications such as indigenous versus non-indigenous, and to exaggerate differences as in multi-culturalism.
Older and current notions of citizenship as membership of one of a number of human associations provide a richer conceptual structure for understanding citizenship. The paper argues that recognition of human complexity and multiple memberships of political and other associations provide a sounder basis for citizenship, peace and reconciliation.
Brian
Galligan is a professor and head of the Department of Political Science
at the University of Melbourne. He has written extensively on Australian
constitutional politics, citizenship and rights protection. His books
include Politics of the High Court (UQP, 1987) and A Federal Republic
(CUP, 1995); and jointly authored books Citizens Without Rights (CUP,
1997), Australians and Globalisation (CUP, 2001) and Australian Citizenship
(forthcoming MUP).
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The Role Of Diaspora Communities In Resolving Conflicts In Their Homelands.
This paper explores the positive role that diaspora communities can play in assisting the peaceful resolution of conflicts in their homelands. The focus of most formal and informal efforts at resolving ethnic conflicts around the world, is in the conflict-zone itself. However, the nations/identity-groups that are in conflict often have members spread across many countries around the globe. For example, the Jewish and Arab communities in Australia and the USA viz-a-vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the Turkish and Greek communities established in Australia viz-a-vis the conflict over Cyprus.
These communities have an incredible opportunity to affect the way the conflict persists or is resolved back in the homeland. There has been little academic or political attention paid to this disregarded sector of each feuding ethnic group.
This paper
explores the factors and characteristics that combine to make diaspora
communities uniquely placed to assist the process of homeland conflict
resolution. The means by which these communities may have a substantive,
positive influence on that process will be discussed within the framework
of a political-psychological understanding of conflicts and their resolution.
Examples of successful diaspora conflict resolution activities will be
reviewed and their impact analyzed. Finally, models for action for local
diaspora communities shall be presented.
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Towards A New Consent Theory Of Power: How Solidarity Movements Can Maximise The Effectiveness Of Nonviolent Struggle.
This paper will examine the consent theory of power that underpins nonviolent action and demonstrate how strategic nonviolent solidarity movements can maximise the effectiveness of nonviolent struggle waged by a resisting population. Drawing on the case of West Papua and the emerging solidarity movement in Australia, the paper proceeds to outline how the Indonesian military occupation of West Papua is indirectly dependent on the ongoing consent and cooperation of key social groups in the societies of Indonesia's elite allies. These social groups could be persuaded or compelled to withdraw their support for the occupation through the application of a strategy of nonviolent action. By questioning the legitimacy of rule and undermining the power to maintain that rule, strategic nonviolent action aims to help create the conditions for a problem solving dialogue to resolve conflict.
The 'consent theory of power' first articulated by Etienne de La Boetie in sixteenth century France and popularised by the work of Gene Sharp, a principal theorist of nonviolent action, has been the key insight that has guided nonviolent struggle. La Boetie argued that power is not concentrated in the hands of a few rulers perched at the top of a 'pyramid of power' but is dispersed throughout society. Elites depend on the passive and active consent and cooperation of their subjects to maintain their rule. People, therefore, are the sources of power. Should they withdraw their consent and cooperation and persist for long enough even the most ruthless regime will crumble.
In recent times, however, major criticisms of the consent theory of power have emerged. Robert Burrowes, expanding on the argument first outlined by Lipsitz and Kritzer, has shown that there are situations where a ruler's power is not dependent on the consent and cooperation of the people they dominate, but on the sustained support of elite allies. Examples include the Israeli occupation of Palestine, Chinese rule in Tibet and the Indonesian occupation of West Papua. In situations like these nonviolent struggle will not succeed unless it is directed at the sources of the opponents power, which are external: ultimately the continued consent and cooperation of key social groups in the societies of the oppressors' elite allies. These constituencies in countries that give significant diplomatic, military and economic support to an oppressor could be persuaded to withdraw their support for oppression and act in solidarity with the resisting population. This important theoretical insight into the strategy of nonviolence has not, to my knowledge, been applied to how it might assist the transformation of conflict in a specific conflict situation.
The paper
will address both the theoretical issues surrounding the consent theory
of power and the practical issues involved in using this as the basis
for a nonviolent strategy for peace, justice and self-determination in
West Papua.
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Is The EU A Model For Interstate Cooperation?
The European Union (EU) is commonly regarded as a model of interstate cooperation and the achievement of reconciliation among former enemies. This inter-state cooperation is characterised by formal agreements and a high degree of institutionalisation. The process of EU integration in an innovative European agency is characterised by new institutions above the nation state, common policies and economic and political outcomes which are distinctive from those arising from more conventional international bargaining and national policymaking.
The avoidance of war and the achievement of Franco-German reconciliation are commonly regarded as the EU's most important accomplishment, beginning with the visionary era immediately following World War II. It can be argued that the EU has achieved many of its original objectives of ending - or mending - age-old rivalries.
The augmentation of the EU's profile with the Common Foreign and Security Policy; the enhanced role of the EU in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the role of the EU in peace-promoting initiatives have all contributed to the perception of the EU as a key world actor in trade, aid, diplomacy and in foreign policy harmonisation; aid policy and humanitarian policy. These elements are increasingly scrutinised as examples of advanced forms of political as well as economic integration. They are part of a pattern of multilateral treaties, regional integration, international treaties and cooperation, all transforming - and potentially undermining - traditional bilateral state-to-state relations.
This paper
examines these issues and, further, asks: to what extent can the EU's
main achievements be regarded as peace and reconciliation? Can the EU
be termed a 'peace community', entailing reconciliation among former enemies?
Has this peace been at the basis of the achievements of the EU? Or is
peace irrelevant?
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States As Dinosaurs: Globalization And The Decline Of The Sovereign State.
The idea of the inviolability of governments within modern sovereign states (often misleadingly referred to as nation-states) is largely taken for granted in international politics and diplomacy.
Max Weber viewed the modern state as an over-arching institution exercising a "monopoly of force" over peoples identified as citizens or subjects within internationally recognised borders or a defined territory or territories. Critics of this view have argued that other transnational or pan-global entities (e.g., big powers, the United Nations, MNCs, NGOs, and regional groupings like the European Union) are increasingly important players on the international stage - sometimes equal to the governments of states, sometimes superior to them. They suggest that a trend to towards the replacement of states as the main actors in global politics is gathering pace.
The defenders of state sovereignty have been adamant that states are here to stay - that while states may be forced to share some power (even compromising their own sovereignties to some degree) with other global institutions, they will remain the fundamental players in the international system.
The view that the sovereign state is a permanent reality on world politics is challenged in this paper. It is argued that the institutions of government within all modern states have invariably accommodated ruling elites and classes that are oligarchical, not democratic. That is, all states - large and small, strong and weak - are structurally incapable of delivering democratic governance to anyone. At the same time global or regional challenges to governments are emerging (e.g., increasing population mobility, refugees, environmental issues like global warming, struggles over basic resources like water, pandemics like HIV/AIDS and SARS).
There is growing evidence that the increasingly limited resources of governments are inadequate for meeting these challenges - that states are declining in their effectiveness in delivering fundamentally vital reources and services to the peoples they govern. Moreover, the very institutions that characterise contemporary governance (e.g., parliaments, bureaucracies, judiciaries, political parties, economic institutions, the media, labour unions, military and policing capacities, educational systems, health and welfare programmes) are possibly (at least in part) the root causes of the problems associated with the challenges confronting them on a globalising stage. In addition, there are growing regional and global pressures mounting for the international community to respond to what the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty describes as the "responsibility to protect" (e.g., in regard to human rights issues, security issues, for peace-making and peace-keeping, etc.).
A range of
alternatives to states will be canvassed in the paper including democratising
regional associations, global institutions (e.g., the International Criminal
Court), and the nurturing of international civil society - mainly through
international education programmes.
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Humanizing The Enemy: A Case Study In Jewish Moral Education.
Educating
for humane values in the face of ongoing ethnic, national, and/or religious
conflict is surely one of the great challenges of our time. Many religious
traditions embrace universal values, but how to maintain those values
in the heat of conflict is the crux of the educational challenge. The
weight of tradition is one such maintenance factor, but those same traditions
sometimes include texts with flawed moral messages from a contemporary
point of view (e.g. sexism and ethnocentrism). This problem is examined
through the case of the Beautiful Captive of war (Deuteronomy 21:10-14).
That legislation addresses a victorious Israelite who is sexually attracted
to one of the female captives. While the captives are taken back as slaves
(common practice in the ancient world), this law forbids the captor to
have sexual relations with her unless he marries her. A moral dilemma
is generated by a lower ethical standard regarding the captive's rights
in later Jewish tradition. This dilemma is the engine for moral development,
as students must decide which standard is preferred (and why). The dilemma
is explored in the context of a kind of religious education which strives
for critical commitment to sacred tradition. That kind of education is
analysed for its roots in self-persuasion (E. Aronson), moral agency in
varying social settings (A. Bandura), and an educational philosophy based
on norms and conscience (T. Green). Other issues touched on are international
human rights, the relationship of abstract moral vignettes to real-life
situations and behaviour, and the relationship of religious to moral education.
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Creative Conflict Resolution: The New Timor Sea Treaty Between Australia and East Timor
Few issues strike so profoundly at the heart of national sovereignty than disputes over the ownership of oil and gas resources. When the dispute also involves an impoverished nation emerging from colonial and illegal occupations and a relatively resource rich nation, prospects for settlement may seem dim. The historical inability of Indonesia and Australia, and more recently East Timor, to delimit the seabed boundary between them in the "Timor Gap" remains unresolved. It is thus a significant diplomatic achievement that Australia and East Timor have agreed upon a new Timor Sea Treaty, which entered into force on 2 April 2003, as a means of avoiding potentially a damaging impediment to neighbourly relations with the recently independent East Timor.
This paper examines the Timor Sea Treaty as a case study of how creative thinking, diplomatic negotiations and innovative legal drafting can provide solutions, or at least temporary solutions, to international conflicts.
A dominant feature of the Timor Sea Treaty is that it enables joint development of the oil and gas resources of the disputed area, the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA), without prejudicing the legal positions of either Australia or East Timor on their asserted sovereign rights to the continental shelf of the Timor Gap. The relative legal stability created by the Timor Sea Treaty enables petroleum companies to commit the necessary and significant financial resources to exploit the oil and gas of the JPDA under the joint control of Australia and East Timor. More importantly from the perspective of East Timor, it will receive 90% of the petroleum revenues from exploitation; a badly needed financial base upon which the new nation may be founded.
Ratification of the Timor Sea Treaty was complicated by the need to agree upon development of the Greater Sunrise field, an oil deposit straddling the boundary between the JPDA and Australia's adjacent continental shelf. East Timor argued that the boundary was drawn illegally in Australia's favour and that it should be redrawn to recognise East Timorese sovereignty over the oil deposit. While East Timor threatened not to accept the Timor Sea Treaty unless Australia accepted the validity of this additional claim, after extensive negotiations both nations agreed upon exploitation of both the Greater Sunrise deposit and the resources of the JPDA.
Despite these agreements, the underlying international boundary issues remain unresolved. Thus the 'proof' of success of the new Timor Sea Treaty and Greater Sunrise Unitisation agreement will lie in their ability to provide significant mutual benefits to Australia and East Timor in the near future.
Professor
Gillian Triggs has a chair in Law at the Law Faculty, University of
Melbourne and is a Co-Director of the Institute of Comparative and International
Law. Her publications in international law concern a wide range of issues
including offshore petroleum rights, indigenous rights, climate change
and dispute resolution under the World Trade Organisation. Gillian provides
legal advice to governments both in Australia and the Asian region and
maintains a commercial legal practice. She is currently writing an international
law text from an Australian and regional perspective.
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