Love Makes a Way in Court
Statement to the Court
13th of August, 2014
Rev Jennifer Hughes – Mount Barker Magistrate’s Court
Your honour, I wish to submit character references from an Associate Minister from my congregation, Rev. Bernard Clarke, the Moderator of the Uniting Church in South Australia, Dr Deidre Palmer, the President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Rev Dr Andrew Dutney and the Chair of the Human Research Ethics Committee on which I serve, Dr Michael James.
I have prepared a statement that I would like to read.
On June 23rd, I chose to participate in a prayerful and peaceful sit-in at the office of Jamie Briggs, MP. I believe this was undertaken with utmost respect for his staff. Nine faith leaders sat and quietly prayed, sang, read Scripture, studied together and shared in conversation. We requested a response to the question “When will the 983 children, currently held in detention, be released?” We did not receive an answer to this question. At no point during the day did the staff ask the group to leave. However, soon after closing time the police arrived and at that point the staff formally asked us to leave the property. I chose to stay aware of the potential ramifications of my actions. I believe I acted with integrity and I was respectful to the police responsible for me and was polite and courteous to them. Similarly, they treated me with respect and were courteous at all times. They were responsive and kind when I was in the holding cell in the Adelaide Watch house and at no time did I feel threatened or in danger. I am thankful for a justice and legal system that acts in such a manner. However, I realize that this is in complete contrast and incongruent with the way others are treated when they arrive in Australia. This is one of the reasons why I chose to act in the way I did that day. It is so incomprehensible to me that a civilized country such as ours needs to treat people so inhumanely. Many people in Australia believe that people seeking asylum have committed a crime and are somehow “illegal”. However, this is simply not the case. It is their right to seek asylum under international law and the numerous conventions and treaties to which Australia is a signatory. How is it that Australia is able to treat its own citizens with respect, tout a culture of “a fair go”, be on the side of the “battler” or underdog and yet not extend this to others who are in desperate need of sanctuary and safety, simply because of their country of birth? How is it that we are unable to recognize our own hypocrisy and bigotry given the vast numbers of us who came to this land seeking the same things?
Today as I share with you, I would like to explain how my own life brought me to a point of taking this action out of frustration with the lack of response from politicians, increasingly harsh policies and our nation’s lack of compassion. There are 5 parts of my life and identity that I wish to share with you that informed my decision.
First, I declare myself to be a Christian – to believe in a God of love and justice, to follow Christ who stood alongside the vulnerable, and to listen to the stirrings of the Spirit. For me taking such an action was aligning my own faith with how I live. Integral to Christian faith is welcoming the stranger among us. This has been gifted to us through the Hebrew Scriptures and is a repeated message of Jesus’ ministry. His ministry was built on the declaration that he came to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and to let the oppressed go free. Jesus said let the little children come to me and opened his arms to the most vulnerable in his midst who in his time and place were cast aside. Constantly, the care of the outcast, stranger and vulnerable is reiterated throughout Scripture but also through Christian tradition. We have heroes of our faith such as Dietrich Bonheoffer, Bishop Oscar Romero, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, William Wilberforce, Brother Roger of the Taizé community to name just a few who have stood against issues of injustice. They have led the way, prompting Christians to take a stand with the vulnerable in whatever way possible. How is it that so many of our political leaders can in one breath claim Christian faith and in the next uphold abhorrent policies that encourage hatred, fear and bigotry. This is not the Christian faith I know, love and espouse. As a Christian I chose to act.
Second, I am a minister in the Uniting Church. This has shaped my life and encouraged me to take this action. In our tradition, when we become ordained as a minister in the Uniting Church we are charged with a number of responsibilities. This includes the charge to “stand alongside those who suffer, and work for justice and peace in the world.” I see my actions to be entirely congruent with my ministry and what the Uniting Church, and indeed God, calls me to do. How can one preach with integrity on a Sunday and not act congruently on a Monday. My actions, although not taken on behalf of my congregation, nor the Uniting Church, I do see as congruent with this role. The Uniting Church in fact makes provision for such acts in the Code of Ethics allowing for “instances of political resistance or civil disobedience.” This is a freedom for which I am grateful.
However, the protests in support of asylum seekers have fallen on deaf ears. The Uniting Church has lobbied the government for many years on this issue, including on the specific issue of children being held in detention. In June this year, the week before my arrest, the Uniting Church made a submission to the Australian Human Rights Commission Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention. It states:
The submission by UnitingJustice Australia firmly stated and outlined that the indefinite and mandatory detention of children is a gross violation of international human rights laws. It stands alongside all of the most vulnerable, who our government are determined to treat harshly and inhumanely.
I am proud to be a minister of the Uniting Church that recognizes the injustice, inhumanity and illegality of our government’s actions. As a minister in the Uniting Church I chose to act.
Third, my educational experiences have shaped me in such a way to lead to my decision to take part in this peaceful sit-in. My undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Genetics and Psychology. I also obtained honours in Psychology and worked for a psychologist in Adelaide. In 2004 I was offered a generous international student scholarship to undertake my Masters in Church Ministry in the United States at Southern Methodist University. When an internship became available with the Centre for Survivors of Torture this seemed like a natural fit given my background in Psychology. This internship involved working with people who were asylum seekers, asylees, refugees, and victims of human trafficking all suffering with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (or PTSD). This was an eye-opening experience as I journeyed with people who had suffered unimaginable atrocities. What was remarkable was not their suffering but their capacity for healing. I met women who had been repeatedly beaten, raped, had their children and families murdered and yet here they were building a new life. Step by step they found a new way to live. I remember one woman, as she walked through the door on her first day, she shuffled with the gait of someone with Parkinson’s; she never lifted her head, not even to speak to someone, she spoke virtually in a whisper. Her wounds were extensive from the torture she had endured and her psychological scars ran deep. In a few months, she was able to sit at a table and hold a conversation. A few more months and she was able to smile. A little longer and she was looking for work.
There was another man who had come seeking asylum with his teenage son. He was highly educated and loved to speak with me about theology and philosophy. One day he came rushing in really distressed. He had burned down their kitchen in their new apartment. What he was most upset about was the thought that he put his son in danger. He wept at the thought that he might have lost his son now that he was finally in a land of safety. People seeking asylum are not putting their children at risk. They don’t somehow love their children less. They are longing for safety and refuge. They are longing for an opportunity to rebuild and live make a better life with the families.
It is horrifying to me that people come to our country and instead of helping them heal from the traumatic events of their past, Australia instead adds to their mental distress.
In a 2011 report, the Australian Children’s Commissioners and Guardians highlighted the lack of access for children in detention to social and recreational activities which contributed to stress and anxiety, the limited access to mental health services with specialist expertise, the lack of any child protection framework placing them at significant risk of sexual abuse. In a report from the Australian Human Rights Commission from July this year, paediatrician Professor Elizabeth Elliott reported: “We have seen children who have become sad, they are crying all the time,” Dr Elliott said.
“They have developed bed wetting and poor sleeping. Some are refusing to eat. We saw several children, which is quite distressing, who had developed severe speech impediments.
They were having flashbacks and nightmares.
As someone who has seen the scars of PTSD and knows the hope that is possible I chose to act.
Fourth, I am a member of a Human Research Ethics Committee. Every committee is required by law to have someone with pastoral care experience in the community. I frequently have to consider the needs of people who are vulnerable: people who are very sick or unable to provide their own consent, people with cognitive impairment, intellectual disability, mental illness, and also children. We come across all kinds of research – studies on cancer, Alzheimer’s, depression, knee replacement – research including people who are very ill seeking a miracle cure, children who are vulnerable due to illness or simply due to the power differential between medical staff, parents and them. These children have very specific rights – the right to refuse treatment, the right to have a parent or guardian present with them, the right to understand the research and what is going to happen. When it comes to our treatment of asylum seekers no such rights are extended. At a meeting with the Principals who have students attending their schools who are unaccompanied minors, it became evident that a student can be interviewed and attend age determination testing without any advocate present. We do not extend even the most simple of rights to these children – rights which we expect to be provided to our own children.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRoC) asserts that any action must prioritise the child’s best interests. Indefinite detention of children is never in the best interest of a child. We are putting the most vulnerable at further risk, refusing them the rights that we would expect for our own children. Children deserve a childhood, they deserve to be protected by adults who are around them and they deserve to have advocates standing alongside of them in the scariest of times.
As a member of an ethics committee, I chose to act.
Finally, I am a mother. This shaped me in such a way to lead to my decision to take part in this peaceful sit-in. My son, Jack, is two and half years old and I am expecting our next child, due in February. Recently, Jack has captured the idea of emotions. The other day while I was making his lunch, he wrapped his arms around the back of my legs and said, “I happy, Mummy. Are you happy, Mummy?” “Yes!” I said as I gave him a giant hug. He does what he calls a “happy dance” at the dinner table and a happy wiggle when he gets his favourite foods. He is a happy child. I too had a happy childhood – filled with wonderful memories of being valued and loved. Every child deserves the opportunity to have a childhood. Our government is removing any opportunity for asylum seeking children to experience a childhood and most certainly impacting their opportunity to have a happy childhood.
I decided to act for Jack and our next child. For me, this is not an issue of right versus left but rather right versus wrong and we as Australians are on the wrong side of history. Children do not belong in detention and when history judges us I want to be able to tell Jack, his brother or sister and all the children among us that I stood up for children in detention and said “Not in my name”. I want to be able to say that I was part of giving these children a childhood and helping them experience freedom.
As a mother I chose to act.
These are just some of the reasons I chose to take part in the peaceful and prayerful sit-in. I take seriously the consequences of my actions and yet in comparison to innocent children suffering in indefinite detention they seem small. My prayer is that these children may know that they have a future filled with hope and that one-day they may live in freedom.
Thank you, Your Honour.
3 Responses to “Love Makes a Way in Court”
Dear Rev Hughes
Thank you for the example you are providing and the clarity of your thinking and commitment to changing this awful system with its dreadful consequences for some of the most vulnerable in our society. It is a very clear statement and I will share it as widely as I can. The issues are complicated and I know there is no quick fix. But the thoughts of the previous Archbishop of Canterbury who said that there are no disposable people, that here is something unique and precious to God in every human being reminds us that there is a starting point that we can share in working out a way forward.
Lucy Morris
Dear Jenny,
What an excellent testimony to truth! Thank you for your courage and eloquence… Used for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the hope of Shalom.
Well done!
Amelia
What a wonderful testimony. Makes me proud to be a Christian. I led a service today with the theme “Restoring Hope: Should children be in detention?” and was amazed at our conservative congregation’s response. Positive action is being planned.
Thanks and God bless all you are doing.
Helen