Australia is yet to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment that is concerned with the oversight and monitoring of detention facilities. – source October 2012. See also Australia – OPCAT Situation.
Source: a must read – Luke Mogelson, “The Dream Boat”, New York Times 17 November 2013.
To put a minor, questionable political point above an issue as fundamental as human rights diminished Australia and cheapened the Commonwealth.
Source: A craven Tony Abbott’s refusal to discuss human rights in Sri Lanka cheapened the Commonwealth See also In Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka, repression is a family affair.
Friends, so depressing is all this and more in this dark time for Australian politics – not just beginning at the last election either – that I have decided to opt out of further commentary. This blog will become exactly what it says – a Commonplace Book of images, quotations, reviews, nostalgia and history, sometimes music, and sometimes recycled matter from my long back catalogue of blog posts.
Update 19 November
Thanks, Jim Belshaw, for posting Monday Forum – a weariness in the bloggosphere? Some interesting comments there too.
Neil's Commonplace Book 
I understand how you feel. I find myself taking pretty much the same approach, though maybe it is also because of the change in the temperature of the blog world (attention to current issues seems to have Twittified, a step I haven’t taken).
It is also true that I am still sounding off on Facebook or even Twitter — or at the very least posting links to things I do want people to see.
Pingback: I promise… | Neil's Commonplace Book