The 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 MoreOn 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre welcomes the Albanese Government’s introduction of groundbreaking reforms to reduce widespread migrant worker exploitation.
Read MoreWith the rising influence of fossil fuel industries over Australian politics, the Human Rights Law Centre has produced the Climate and Environmental Whistleblowing Information Guide, a practical resource to support any person to raise concerns about climate and environmental wrongdoing in Australia.
Read MoreOur right to protest is under threat. That’s why we are launching our new report Protest in Peril.
Read MoreThe Protest in Peril report analyses and compiles every single bill across Australia over the last two decades which has impacted upon the right to protest, and has found the right to protest is being steadily eroded in Australia.
Read MoreThe South Australian Court of Appeal rejected an appeal brought by tax office whistleblower Richard Boyle. Richard had spoken up about unethical debt recovery practices at the tax office. He has since been vindicated by several independent reviews. The outcome lays bare how our weak laws are failing whistleblowers. There is no public interest in prosecuting people speaking out against injustice and wrongdoing.
Read MoreThe Albanese Government is trying to rush through dangerous new laws that will criminalise and punish people because of their visa status. Thanks to unrelenting community pressure, voting on the Bill has been delayed until at least 24 June.
Read MoreDavid McBride was given a sentence of five years and eight months, with a non-parole period of two years and three months for leaking documents to the ABC which exposed war crimes in Afghanistan.
Read MoreThe High Court allows indefinite detention of people who cannot be forcibly deported - but serious questions remain. The Human Rights Law Centre will not stop fighting to end cruel detention practices until the Albanese Government fixes this flawed system, and finally gives people the chance to rebuild their lives.
Read MoreAn explainer by the Human Rights Law Centre on the High Court’s decision in ASF17 v Commonwealth [2024] dismissing the appeal brought by ASF17 seeking his release from immigration detention.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is working with communities in Bougainville to seek justice for the environmental devastation left by Rio Tinto’s Panguna mine. Together, we are calling for action so people can live safely on their land again.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre Whistleblower Project supported scientists, doctors, nurses and ecologists to speak out against a proposed petrochemical hub for processing gas planned for Darwin Harbour.
Read MoreOur client, Ned Kelly Emeralds, was granted to leave to intervene in a High Court challenge that will determine whether our government can indefinitely detain people from countries that will not accept their forced return.
Read MoreThe Albanese Government is trying to rush through dangerous new laws that will criminalise and punish people because of their visa status.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Albanese Government to strengthen our modern slavery laws. Our laws need requirements on companies to take action to address modern slavery, and penalties for those that do not. We are advocating for independent oversight through a new Anti-Slavery Commissioner.
Read MoreThe Albanese Government must take action to fix its unfair social safety net and address the gap in life expectancy.
Read MoreLast month marked one year since the Victorian, New South Wales and Queensland governments missed the deadline to meet Australia’s obligations to the United Nations anti-torture protocol, the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT).
Read MoreIntergenerational equity should be at the heart of the Australian Government’s decisions around climate. The Duty of Care law would result in fewer coal, oil and gas projects being approved, a faster transition to net zero and a brighter future for Australian children and for humanity.
Read More26 January is not a day to celebrate.
Read MoreThe Migration Justice team have analysed the Albanese Government’s new preventive detention regime. Here is their analysis and explainer of the updated Migration Act.
Read MoreThis explainer responds to FAQs relating to the High Court’s judgment of NZYQ and what is likely to come next. It is not intended as legal advice.
Read MoreGovernments must not give into their demands for profit at the expense of our planet, and our right to speak up. This is why we have released our Declaration of Our Right to Protest. The Declaration calls for governments across Australia to adhere to international standards and human rights law to protect protest rights.
Read MoreThe right to protest in Australia is under significant and sustained attacks by governments and increasingly, the fossil fuel industry. The Human Rights Law Centre is calling for governments across Australia to better protect protest rights, by releasing the “Declaration of Our Right to Protest”.
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