Border Politics

Streaming video - 2018

This documentary follows human rights barrister Julian Burnside as he traverses the globe examining the harsh treatment of refugees by most Western democracies. This contemporary story is about the threat to human rights, the loss of democratic values and our increasingly heartless treatment of ‘the other’. Seventy years after the world constructed international conventions to ensure the horrors of World War 2 wouldn’t be repeated, Burnside finds it terrifying to see Australian and other Western political leaders exploiting fears around border protection to extend political power. Burnside questions whether the West has lost its moral compass by adopting ideas that reject humanity and undermine democracy. He concludes that this erosio...n of human rights poses a threat to the very democratic values that define Western society. more