LIVES ADRIFT Julian Burnside and Judy Rymer on Border Politics

When, exactly, did ‘human rights’ become a dirty phrase? That’s a key question raised by Judy Rymer’s documentary Border Politics (2018), a forceful defence of the rights of people seeking refuge and asylum in Western countries that are turning increasingly hostile.

‘Talking about human rights has become almost unacceptable,’ Border Politics’ narrator, barrister Julian Burnside, tells me. ‘I may be overstating that, but the world’s appetite for respecting human rights seems to have diminished progressively.’

You don’t have to look very hard to find evidence for Burnside’s argument. In her film, Rymer jarringly exposes just how far things have seemingly deteriorated. ‘We must want our fellow human beings to have rights and freedoms which give them dignity,’ former US first lady Eleanor Roosevelt says in archival footage shown in the film, discussing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Rymer then cuts to US President Donald Trump addressing a rally: ‘110,000 refugees in just a single year and we have no idea where they come from, folks,’ he says. ‘This could be the great Trojan Horse.’ Then there’s the moment British Prime Minister Theresa May, ushering in new anti-terrorism legislation, tells an applauding crowd