The Committee on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, which is established as one of the expert bodies of the United Nations to evaluate the performance of State Parties on the right to health, housing, education, culture and related matters, is to review Australia’s performance soon. 

Ahead of this, a group of NGOs in Australia have banded together and written a thorough civil society report, which outlines the need to recognize economic, social & cultural rights legally, the – alarming – state of poverty in Australia, the situation of women who are subject to violence, the state of workers’ rights and homelessness, among others. Not surprisingly, the report also tackles the infringements of the economic, social & cultural rights of immigrants and their families.

The combination of Waltz and Australia has to be commented on by an Australian-Austrian – naturally! 

Some new research about the “true” meaning of Australia’s popular but not official anthem, Waltzing Matilda is apparently not filled with political meaning – in support of a shearers’ strike in 1891 but rather to flatter a woman named Christina Macpherson, reports the BBC.

A little while back the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, came out with a statementabout “missing women”. He condoned the aborting of female fetuses as “shameful.” Mr. Singh said: “No nation, no society, no community can hold its head high and claim to be part of the civilized world if it condones the practice of discriminating against one half of humanity represented by women.”