Governments across Australia must repeal anti-protest laws and introduce reforms which protect protest, the Human Rights Law Centre said on release of a new report, Protest in Peril.

The Human Rights Law Centre has welcomed the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor’s recommendations to better balance secrecy and transparency under federal law, and called on the Albanese Government to enact the proposed reform.

The Human Rights Law Centre has urged the Albanese Government to take decisive action to protect current and future children from the existential impacts of the climate crisis after a Labor-dominated Senate Committee failed to listen to the voices of children, climate scientists and health experts calling for a legislated duty of care.  

The Albanese Government should underpin artificial intelligence laws in human rights principles to protect people from exploitation and ensure advances and uses of AI benefit the wider community.

The Albanese Government must urgently reform whistleblower protection laws and establish a whistleblower protection authority after tax office whistleblower Richard Boyle’s appeal was dismissed.

The Human Rights Law Centre has called on the Allan Government to be brave in transforming Victoria’s youth justice system, with the Youth Justice Bill 2024 introduced into the Victorian Parliament.

A coalition of 104 civil society organisations have welcomed the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights call for an Australian Human Rights Act as an important step forward towards a fairer, more compassionate Australia.

The family of Warlpiri and Luritja teenager Kumanjayi Walker are calling for truth, accountability and justice, after the coronial inquest into the police shooting death of Kumanjayi concluded its evidence yesterday.

Civil society groups and unions have welcomed the Albanese Government’s establishment of an Anti-Slavery Commissioner, but urged the Government to strengthen the Commissioner’s powers and resourcing.

Formerly incarcerated women, trans and gender diverse people alongside Flat Out and the Human Rights Law Centre are calling for governments across the country to permanently prohibit the practice of strip searching people in Australian prisons.

Civil society groups have expressed grave concern and alarm after military whistleblower David McBride was sentenced to almost six years’ imprisonment in the ACT Supreme Court. 

The High Court has dismissed a legal challenge to the Australian Government’s ongoing detention of people who cannot be forced to return to their country of citizenship, meaning that up to 200 people may remain indefinitely detained, said the Human Rights Law Centre today.