Petition Tag - democracy

Ukraine has been an independent nation since 1991.

Ukraine, with over 48 Million people is situated geographically in the centre of Europe. It history and struggle for independence spans hundreds of years.

In 1991 Ukraine declared independence form the former Soviet Union and in doing so created a free independent democratic state. Something that Ukraine has sought for hundreds of years.

In August 2004 Ukraine (which has limited economic resources) appointed its first official ambassador to Australia, Dr. Olexandr P. Mischenko.

Currently Australia's diplomatic representation to Ukraine is via the Australian Embassy based in Moscow, Russia.

The time has come for Australia to recognise Ukraine as an independent state and to demonstrate its commitment to the people of Ukraine and Australia by establishing an Australian embassy and the appointment of an Australian Ambassador to Ukraine.

See also the newer petition:

Petition - Australian Embassy in Ukraine

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There is growing public concern for the need to ensure that the conduct of elections by electronic means is open and transparent.

With the increasing use of computer based technology in the counting of election results it is fundamental that proper checks and balances are put in place to maintain public confidence in the electoral process. Computerised counting systems are subject to errors in data entry and voters preference transcription.

There is also a risk of system failure or electoral fraud. With the use of computers in the conduct of elections, the counting and determination of election results is now made in cyber space. The failure of the State and Federal electoral offices to provide copies of detailed electronic preference data prevents the proper scrutiny and independent analysis of the election result.

Copies of the data-file were made available during the 1996 Council elections but denied during the 1999 and 2001 City of Melbourne Council elections

The Australian Electoral Office, - who conducted the Melbourne City Council elections in 1996, 1999 and 2001 - was prepared to make a copy of the data-file available to scrutineers and candidates but was subsequently prevented from doing so by the City Council Officers.


The City of Melbourne had spent over $60,000.00 of ratepayers' money trying to prevent the publication and disclosure of the detailed election results for its 1999 and 2001 Council elections. The Victorian Civil Appeals Tribunal on hearing an application under the Freedom of Information legislation, lasting two days, ordered the City of Melbourne to publish and make available the detailed elections results stored in electronic format. The decision of the tribunal was made immediately without reserving its determination.

It is fundamental for public confidence to be maintained the electoral process must be open and transparent and subject to proper scrutiny. There is no legal impediment preventing the disclosure and publication o the election results.

No explanation or justification has been given by the City of Melbourne for refusing to make this information available. No one has ever been held to account for this decision or the expenditure of ratepayers' money.

Amidst growing pubic concern world wide about the conduct of electronic counting of ballots, the elected City Council earlier this year had failed to address this issue, instead they washed their hands and buried their heads in the sand.

The publication and distribution of detailed election results is essential to ensure that the information used to determine the election results is accurate and correct. Without it there is no way in which a scrutineer can fulfil his or her duty.

It's like going to the supermarket cashier with a trolley of goods and being given a receipt for the total amount owing but the receipt does not showing the list of detailed items that make up the total of the bill. Without this information there is no way of verifying that the information s correct.

The solution is simple. Copies of detailed data-files recorded in electronic format can and MUST be made available to scrutineers. This is a relative simple process and would costs less then $1.00 the price f of a disk even less if information was made available on line. A verified and authorised copy of the detailed preference results should also be published, on line, as part of the requirements related to the declaration of the poll.

The onus is now on the Victorian State Government to restore public confidence in the use of electronic equipment in the conduct of Municipal elections.

The State Government must legislate to ensure that the conduct of electronic elections is open and transparent and subject to proper scrutiny.

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Human Rights violations continue at full force in Sri Lanka. Thousands of people are arbitrarily arrested, often tortured or ill treated. There are continued reports of extra-judicial executions and orced "disappearances," and the fate of thousands of disappeared people remains unknown.

Abuses are committed both by government forces and by the armed opposition group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elaam (LTTE).

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December 29, 2003

The United States is Undemocratic. How can the USA tell Russia and China to be more democratic when the USA has unfair electoral practices?

This is a petition to call on the United States of America to review its electoral practices and to abolish the 'first past the post' electoral system and adopt a system of preferential proportional representation.

The United States has one of the most undemocratic electoral practices. The current president does not represent a majority of USA citizens. The United States president is not directly elected but appointed by an unrepresentative electoral college itself elected by a minority of voters. If the United States is to maintain public confidence as the voice and campion of democracy then it must review its electoral practices to ensure that its Government and Head of State establishes and maintains a majority mandate as opposed to a representation of a minority.

Democracy can only be maintained with the majority support of citizens voting to elect its representative. The current first past the post electoral system was implemented at a time when most Americans were unable to write and had a low standard of education. The time has come for it to join the 21st century and update its electoral practices to give voice to its people and citizens.

The adoption of a preferential electoral system would ensure that the electoral process properly and democratically reflect the view and opinions of its citizens.

Given the power and influence that the United States wields in the world it is fundamental that its electoral practices are reviewed so that its elected representatives reflect the voices of its citizens in a democratic and fair electoral system.

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The necessity and urgency of fair and accurate oversight of the 2004 US Presidential Elections is of paramount concern for hundreds of thousands of people who know for fact that their vote did not count. Whether it was by means of physically preventing voting at the polls, an intentional miscount of their vote, or purposeful deception that rendered their vote ineligible, a significant portion of the American population does not feel that the 2000 Presidential Election was executed with democracy and fairness in mind.

The American people have not been given any reason to believe that 2004 Presidential Election will be any different.

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We the people petition the US Government for a REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES over the United States Senate, Congrees, and all other officials and spokesman for the US Governent for their efforts to lead the people of the United States into a Democracy by referring to the US as a Democracy when in fact the US is supposed to be a Constitutional Democracy.

This petition is to promote the repeal of the 17TH ARTICLE OF AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION. This amendment effectively turned our constitutional Republic into a legislative democracy and denies the states their right to appoint senators as written in the Constitution.

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PETITION TO STOP PROSECUTION AGAINST LEADERS OF THE DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT FOR PEACEFULLY EXERCISING THE INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED RIGHT OF A CITIZEN TO RETURN TO HIS OR HER HOMELAND (Article 13, Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

For 42 years the Cuban military government has divided the Cuban families and their nation and has established a very lucrative industry from that division at the rate of one billion dollars annually. Practically every family unit has been divided. Even Castro's own family has been affected from his own totalitarian policies with his daughter Alina and sister Juanita both living in exile.

To keep this infamous policy in place (and the profits from family division), Castro discriminates his own countrymen who live outside Cuba. A "visa" system has been established for Cubans living aboard to return to their homeland to see their families. They have to acquire a visa as if they were foreigners in their own homeland so that they can be limited in the days that they may stay in Cuba. Castro then uses the visa to discriminate who can visit and who cannot. This is a clear violation of Article 13th of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of which Cuba is a signatory. More so when Castro allows American vessels from the Florida Keys to enter Cuba without a visa for 72 hours while prohibiting Cubans from the United States from doing the same, a clear practice of discrimination based on national origins.

For many years now, the Democracy Movement, a non-violent, pro-democracy civil and human rights advocacy organization has been struggling to reunite the Cuban People in their homeland with growing support both in exile and in the Island. Requests addressed to the Cuban Government have been ignored. Attempts to peacefully exercise the "right to return" have been met with violence. Unfortunately, the US Government has succumbed to Castro's threats of a massive exodus to the US and Washington came up a Presidential Proclamation (6867) under which it joins the Cuban regime in discriminating Cuban nationals --more directly the members of the Democracy Movement--in what relates to the right to return to one's homeland. Presidential Proclamation is selectively enforced against the Democracy Movement: in the six years since it was enacted, three thousand permits have been given by the US Coast Guard to Americans to enter Cuba by boat and only three have been denied--all three from the Democracy Movement. This is even recognized by the US Coast Guard in their own web page www.uscg.com. Under the Proclamation only three vessels have been confiscated since it was enacted: the "M/V Democracia", the "M/V Human Rights" and the "M/V My Right To Return Home", all three from the Democracy Movement. Since enacted, only three people have been criminally charged and are now facing trial: Ramon Saul Sanchez, Alberto Perez and Pablo Rodriguez, all three, leaders of the Democracy Movement.

These three men are facing 15 years incarceration each and $10,000 fine for having peacefully entered their waters on July 14, 2001, during a memorial flotilla to drop flowers and say prayers for the innocent children and adults that had been murdered by Cuban gunboats in those same waters on July 13, 1994.

Serious constitutional violations exist in this case. Equally serious are the violations of universally recognized rights, such as the right to return to one's country, the right to free travel, the right to freedom of expression, the right to equal treatment under the law and to not be discriminated against based on nationality and beliefs, etc.; all done--according to the Proclamation's main objective--to preserve "international relations" with the murderer of thousands of Cubans, a renown sponsor of international terrorism, a denounced torturer by the Geneva Convention on Human Rights, and a preacher of hatred and violence against the People of the United States and other nations of the world he dislikes.

Please, make the difference by petitioning the President of the United States, Mr. George W. Bush, to stop prosecution against Ramon Saul, Pablo and Alberto, and to rescind Presidential Proclamantion, 6867. Help us bring down the walls of family division that have caused and continue to cause so much suffering to millions of human beings both in Cuba and in the US.

For additional information, please e-mail us at movidemo@aol.com or call 305-264-7200. Someday the today oppressed people of Cuba will be able to reunite freely in their homeland, and we will not forget those who raised their voices for us in the midst of our plight.

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At this very moment across the globe, people are protesting against corporations prioritizing profits over people's welfare. They argue that corporations should serve people, and not the world economy. They also argue that we are living in a world system which has been re-fashioned by the New Right over the last twenty years. These imbeciles obviously didn't do history in their Uni. studies... the "world system" has always mirrored that of the animal kingdom: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.

Even as far back as the Ancient Roman & Greek era, society learnt that the weak get weaker, and the strong get stronger. The stronger the army, the easier the victory. The stronger the leaders, the stronger the empire. It was often the case that the weak needed to work REALLY hard, become strong, and then succeed. Today's society is EXACTLY the same... there is the easy option of "BLAME", or there is the alternative: "EFFORT". The difference is that the "Blamers" are the weak link in today's society, being the burden for those who put in the "Effort". It is not a matter of principle. It is not a matter of money. It is a matter of justifying their weak stance in society.

If [a majority of them] leave their sheltered Uni. lives, they will EXPERIENCE what life is all about. And this is what this is all about. For them to condemn an organization like McDonalds, who recruit young people and teach them VALUES at such an age, is preposterous! It is a simple case of "Tall Poopy Syndrome"... they cut individuals down who have made the effort to become successful, because they CAN'T BE BOTHERED MAKING AN EFFORT THEMSELVES. These morons expect us to listen to them when they have had NO LIFE EXPERIENCES... operating on theories rather than facts. Taking their advice is like taking medical advice from a car salesman. Don't allow the minority to rule our democracy... a true democracy takes EVERYONE'S issues into account.

Sign this petition to protect our future. Skip signing it if you are one of the BLAMERS...

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