To mark the anniversary of the release of the Royal Commission into Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory’s final report, the Change the Record Coalition including human rights organisations is calling on the NT Gunner Government to raise the age of criminal responsibility and get children out of harmful youth prisons.

Despite reports today that all children and their families will finally be evacuated from Nauru and amidst mounting public pressure to end offshore detention, it’s also been reported that Canstruct has had its contract to run the Nauru detention centre renewed.

The Human Rights Law Centre has submitted a report to the United Nations Child Rights Committee showing that Australian governments are failing to protect the rights of vulnerable children. Australia is due to front the Child Rights Committee in Geneva in February, where the Government’s compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child will be measured. The HRLC’s report, ‘Justice for Children’, will inform the assessment of Australia.

The Palaszczuk Government will today table in Parliament its long-awaited human rights legislation to protect fundamental rights for all Queenslanders like the right to education, privacy, freedom of speech and the protection of children.

A major report confirms that religious conversion therapy and related practices are pervasive in many faith communities in Australia and causing real harm to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people.

Queensland women will finally have the freedom to decide what is right for their bodies with the passing of the Termination of Pregnancy Bill in the Queensland Parliament last night.

63 mothers, fathers and children permanently separated between Australia and indefinite offshore detention on Manus and Nauru have taken their case for family reunion to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

Every person deserves the right to be who they are. LGBT people are not wrong or broken, and religious conversion therapies that try to ‘cure’ them are harmful.

From today transgender Victorians will be able to stay married to the person they love when they change their birth certificate to reflect who they are. The Andrews Government eliminated an anomaly in Victoria’s birth certificate laws that requires anyone wishing to change their gender to be unmarried.

The Human Rights Law Centre welcomed new changes to proposed electoral laws that threatened to shut charities out of public debates about laws and policies.

The Human Rights Law Centre has launched a report calling for stronger protections from hate speech and hate crime in Victoria. End the Hate: Responding to prejudice motivated speech and violence against the LGBTI Community reveals how current laws and policies are failing to protect LGBTI people from hate crime and hate conduct and outlines how the tide can be turned with 23 recommendations for reform.

Ten faith-based family violence services have made a public pledge to provide inclusive and non-discriminatory services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, gender diverse and intersex (LGBTI) people in Victoria. Anna Brown, Director of Legal Advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, welcomed the pledge and its significance.