The 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 MoreFrom Malaysian workers forced to work around the clock to make PPE, to migrant workers trapped in shocking conditions on Australian farms, many companies continue to turn a blind eye to exploitation and abuse in their supply chains. Our team advocates for stronger laws to end modern slavery.
Read MoreAround the world, reproductive freedom is constantly under threat. The Human Rights Law Centre fights back against attempts to wind back progress on reproductive rights in Australia.
Read MoreDisinformation is used to create division and to polarise our communities for political or financial gain. The Human Rights Law Centre advocates for legal reforms to prevent its spread and penalties for politicians who deliberately mislead the public.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is working to address systemic problems with Australia’s migration system that prevent migrants from becoming permanent residents or citizens.
Read MoreAustralia’s migration laws should aim to reunite people with their loved ones, not deliberately keep them apart. The Human Rights Law Centre advocates for an end to cruel migration policies that intentionally separate families.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre and Maurice Blackburn are supporting the Berati family in legal action to hold the Australian Government and G4S to account for Reza Berati’s murder at a Manus Island detention centre in 2014
Read MorePeople seeking safety in Australia should be treated with dignity and respect, not banished to a detention camp in another country. The Human Rights Law Centre continues to call for an end to this shameful policy.
Read MoreWestern Australia was the last state where abortion remained in the criminal code. In September 2023, a landmark milestone for equality and reproductive rights was achieved when the Western Australia Parliament finally passed new health-focused abortion laws that will see abortion removed from the state’s criminal laws.
Read MoreOur new major report, Together in Safety, exposes the Australian Government’s deliberate and systematic approach to keeping refugee families apart.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is expanding our work fighting for climate and environmental justice. Using our srategic litigation and advocacy expertise, this new program area will push governments and companies to set more ambitious climate targets, protect human rights and secure the reforms needed for a sustainable future.
Read MoreThe freedom to protest is fundamental to our democracy, but for years, protest rights across Australia have been under a sustained attack. The Human Rights Law Centre is fighting attacks on our right to protest through advocacy and strategic litigation.
Read MoreNo one should be subjected to abuse in prisons and places of detention. Yet cruel and degrading treatment is all too common in prisons and police cells across Australia. The UN’s anti-torture treaty, the Convention Against Torture and the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), are designed to end the mistreatment of people behind bars.
Read MoreStrip searching is carried out routinely in Australian prisons, despite the availability of non-invasive alternatives. Strip searches rob people of their dignity and can be traumatising for survivors of abuse. The Human Rights Law Centre advocates for an end to the use of routine strip searching in Australian prisons.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is advocating to change regressive bail laws across the country that are driving up the number of unsentenced people in prison. These dangerous laws are not making the community safer, instead, they are increasing the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in prisons and targeting women experiencing disadvantage.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is supporting the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) in their intervention in the coronial inquest into the police-shooting death of Warlpiri and Luritja teenager Kumanjayi Walker. The Human Rights Law Centre is assisting NAAJA to highlight systemic injustices experienced by Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, including systemic racism in policing.
Read MoreChildren do not belong behind bars. Yet across Australia, children as young as 10 can be charged by police and locked up in prison. Due to systemic injustice, this is disproportionately impacting Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander children. The Human Rights Law Centre is a founding member of the #RaisetheAge campaign which seeks to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14 years old Australia wide.
Read MoreThe Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, the Human Rights Law Centre and proud Wakka Wakka man Dennis brought a legal challenge in the Federal Court. The case called for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be able to access the age pension earlier, to account for the gap in life expectancy.
Read MoreJoin the Human Rights Law Centre’s national campaign to create an Australian Human Rights Act to ensure human rights are properly protected in law at the national level.
Read MoreBig corporations shouldn’t be allowed to manipulate politicians to put their profits ahead of our wellbeing. The Human Rights Law Centre advocates for changes to laws and policies to end the cycle of corporate influence in our political system.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has developed an online resource that shows 101 examples of how Charters of Rights that exist in the ACT, Victoria and Queensland are making peoples lives better.
Read MoreWhistleblowers make our democracy stronger, but too often, people are afraid to come forward when they witness wrongdoing for fear of reprisal. The Human Rights Law Centre pushes for stronger whistleblower protections through advocacy and strategic litigation.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre continued to support the work of the family of Yorta Yorta woman Aunty Tanya Day, who died in police custody in Victoria in 2017. Aunty Tanya was arrested for being drunk in a public place after falling asleep on a train and died after hitting her head in a police cell. The Coroner found that the checks conducted on Aunty Tanya while she was in the police cell were inadequate and that police had failed to take proper care for her health and welfare.
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