A wave of new federal and state laws have recently been introduced under the guise of protecting against hate speech and vilification. The Human Rights Law Centre is advocating to strengthen protections while also calling for evidence-based prevention and education programs.
Read MoreA new report on the right to housing commissioned by the Human Rights Law Centre and authored by Professor Jessie Hohmann from the UTS Faculty of Law shifts the discussion to people, not prices.
Read MoreCommissioned by the Human Rights Law Centre and authored by Professor Jessie Hohmann from the UTS Faculty of Law, this new report shows how an Australian Human Rights Act could person should have a safe, secure and healthy place to call home, regardless of their postcode or bank balance.
Read MoreWhistleblowers make Australia a better place by speaking up about wrongdoing and corruption. The Human Rights Law Centre's Whistleblower Project is making it easier for you to access the legal information about your rights while considering whether or not you need to make a disclosure. Our team have produced these legal information guides for public and private sector workers.
Read MoreThe laws, if passed, would have wide-ranging implications for the right to peaceful assembly and may lead to the criminalisation of conduct which does not impact on the rights of people to practice their religion and be protected from racial or religious hatred.
Read MoreHuman rights defenders, community groups, journalists, activists, and whistleblowers must be protected from being dragged through expensive and exhausting lawsuits by powerful corporations.
Read MoreThe Queensland Crisafulli Government’s latest legislation, the Making Queensland Safer Act 2024 (Act), substantially changes how children are treated by Queensland’s police, courts and prisons, including by making prison sentences significantly longer. The Queensland Government concedes that the changes are ‘more punitive than necessary to achieve community safety’ and ‘in direct conflict with international law standards’. ¹
Read MoreEveryone deserves to work in freedom and dignity.
In December, we made important progress towards stopping Australian companies from profiting from forced labour in their supply chains.
On 29 November 2024, the Australian Government passed a suite of harsh new migration laws which threaten refugee and migrant communities across Australia. These laws single people out for punishment and harsh treatment based purely on visa status, with no regard for the lives that people have built in Australia.
Read MoreWhistleblowers raising concerns about harmful digital platforms and holding technology companies to account will be supported by a new practical guide, released by The Human Rights Law Centre, Reset Tech Australia, Psst and Digital Rights Watch.
Read MoreMigration restrictions always serve dual purposes: to exclude and repel some, while ensuring the unequal inclusion of the vast majority.
Read MoreThe right to protest, free speech and academic freedom are central tenets of a functioning democracy.
Read MoreA legal explainer of the Migration Amendment (Removal and Other Measures) Bill 2024 , with a brief analysis of its operation. The Bill permits the Minister to direct certain people to take steps to facilitate their removal from Australia. It also prohibits nationals from certain countries from making a valid application for any visa to come to Australia.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is working with communities in Bougainville to seek justice for the environmental devastation left by Rio Tinto’s former Panguna mine. A major independent investigation, the Panguna Mine Legacy Impact Assessment has been released today and confirms what communities have said for decades: they are living with an environmental and human rights disaster.
Read MoreStop the SLAPP shines a light on the rise of Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP) being used in Australia by the powerful and the wealthy.
Read MoreThe equitable briefing policy was developed in consultation with a range of stakeholders across the legal profession. As a human rights organisation, we have a responsibility to help address the fact that the legal profession does not currently reflect the community it serves. Working with counsel who bring diverse perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds benefits both our clients and the profession as a whole.
Read MoreTasmania’s whistleblowers cannot safely go to the media or parliamentarians. The result is a silencing of public interest stories, while fraud, misconduct and corruption remain hidden.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre’s explainer on the Albanese Government’s laws to give the Minister sweeping powers to ban almost any item, including everyday items like mobile phones, and give officers virtually unchecked powers to conduct searches with no basis.
Read MoreThe Prison to Deportation Pipeline, a new joint report from the Human Rights Law Centre and the University of Melbourne has found that visa cancellations on character grounds has increased tenfold in last ten years.
Read MoreSocial media platforms should be a place where we can come together to connect. Instead, they are a place where powerful interests spread misinformation to devastating effect.
Recently, we have seen misinformation spread falsehoods and division in elections here and abroad. Misinformation is poisoning our democracy and causing real world harm to people and communities and weak laws and regulation are to blame.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre’s explainer on the Albanese Government’s brutal laws to deport and punish refugees and people seeking asylum after the High Court of Australia ruled that ankle bracelets and curfews were punitive and unconstitiutional for people who were released from indefinite immigration detention.
Read MoreThe High Court handed down its decision in YBFZ v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2024] HCA 40 determining by majority that the Albanese Government’s imposition of punitive visa conditions is unconstitutional.
Read MorePeople calling out racism have usually faced more repercussions than those spreading fear, hatred and division
Read MoreWhistleblowers are critical to addressing the climate and biodiversity crises.
Read MoreMigration restrictions always serve dual purposes: to exclude and repel some, while ensuring the unequal inclusion of the vast majority.
Read MoreTransparency is essential for a healthy democracy. But from failing whistleblower protections to a broken freedom of information system and police raids on media companies, transparency is under threat in Australia.
Read MoreThis explainer was created by the Human Rights Law Centre, WestJustice, and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre to help you know your rights when interacting with the Australian Border Force.
Read MoreIn 2021, in response to a human rights complaint brought by 170 local community members, represented by the Human Rights Law Centre, Rio Tinto agreed to fund an independent human rights and environmental impact assessment of the Panguna mine.
Communities in Bougainville have just received the draft results from the investigation, which focused on the most serious areas of concern.
Read MoreInstead of reining in social media giants, the government’s new law is letting them police themselves. We know what happens when we ask the fox to guard the henhouse.
Read MoreMisinformation is poisoning our democracy by distorting public debate, threatening peoples’ online safety, and causing real world harm to people and communities.
This is because Australia has weak laws that allow digital platforms to regulate themselves. Digital platforms profit from amplifying misinformation and hate speech. They will never fix the problem without government intervention.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Albanese Government to combat misinformation which is poisoning Australia's democracy as part of a new report: Rights-First: Principles for Digital Platform Regulation.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is supporting communities in Bougainville to compel Rio Tinto to fund solutions to the environmental and human rights impacts of its former Panguna mine.
Read MoreNo child should ever grow up in a prison cell. Children belong in schools and playgrounds. Funnelling children into prisons does not make communities safer, it undermines them.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre's Whistleblower Project has turned one. Find out about our first year of impact protecting and empowering whistleblowers.
Read MoreThe Parliamentary Joint Committee of Human Rights inquiry has recommended the Albanese Government should legislate an Australian Human Rights Act. Read the Human Rights Law Centre’s explainer of of the final report here.
Read MoreIt is neither fair nor just to continue caging children in youth prisons.
Read MoreWhat don’t we know because potential whistleblowers are too scared to raise concerns? What scandals remain hidden?
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre stands in solidarity with the refugee activists who have maintained a constant protest outside government and ministerial offices in Melbourne since 14 July 2024.
Read MoreRegrettably, in August, the High Court of Australia declined to hear an appeal by tax office whistleblower Richard Boyle.
Boyle will now face trial - and potential jail time - after blowing the whistle on unethical debt recovery practices at the Australian Taxation Office.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre welcomes the Albanese Government’s introduction of groundbreaking reforms to reduce widespread migrant worker exploitation.
Read More
