More Australians are now travelling overseas than ever before, and more and more are finding themselves in trouble abroad as a result. The Federal Government has put a strong emphasis on helping those Australians whose travel plans go wrong for various reasons, but recently there have been signs that this may have gone too far...

The goal of the NGO Support Fund Review was to identify a long-term direction and rationale for Government and donor engagement with NGOs and civil society. The Review also considered the NSF within a context of the developing roles of NGOs and civil society and the part NGOs play in assisting communities and vulnerable groups...

Charles Scheiner of the Timor-Leste Institute for Reconstruction Monitoring and Analysis (La'o Hamutuk) argues that the next UN mission is being designed in an emergency atmosphere. Although immediate humanitarian and security concerns must be dealt with, there are deeper-seated causes of the current problems, and crises will recur if they are not addressed. The millennium's...

On 14-16 September 2005, more than 170 heads of state and government will gather at the United Nations in New York for the 2005 World Summit. Leaders will review progress made since the UN Millennium Declaration adopted by all member states in 2000.

Elizabeth Evatt provides a synoptic overview of the varying degrees to which Australian governments have signed up to and implemented international human rights treaties. She identifies a range of issues arising from failure to respect the views and findings of independent treaty bodies, turning the executive and the parliament into the sole arbiters of compliance...