Everyone has the right to feel included, respected and have a sense of belonging in our community.
Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which Australia pledged in 1975 to do in accordance with international law.
Read MoreIn March, Associate Legal Director, Kieran Pender was at the ACT Court of Appeal to observe McBride’s appeal – he is challenging his conviction, and the severity of his sentence.
Read MoreInternational Women’s Day is more than an anniversary, it’s a global celebration of what has been achieved over centuries of campaigning and action by women fighting for equality.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has filed an urgent High Court challenge on behalf of a man who was scheduled to be deportated to Nauru. After filing the legal challenge, the Australian Government promised that our client would not be removed before his case was finished.
Read MoreA 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 MoreHuman rights defenders, community groups, journalists, activists, and whistleblowers must be protected from being dragged through expensive and exhausting lawsuits by powerful corporations.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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's Whistleblower Project has turned one. Find out about our first year of impact protecting and empowering whistleblowers.
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 MoreOur right to protest is under threat. That’s why we are launching our new report Protest in Peril.
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 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 MoreDavid McBride sought to expose grave wrongdoing committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. In November 2023, David went on trial in the Supreme Court in Canberra for blowing the whistle.
Read MoreIn November 2023, the High Court ended this dark chapter when it ruled that it is unlawful and unconstitutional for the Australian Government to detain people indefinitely in immigration detention. This has life-changing consequences for people who have been detained for years without knowing if they will ever be released.
Read MoreThanks to the tireless advocacy of the Day family, public intoxication has been decriminalised in Victoria. People who are identified as intoxicated in public will be supported to go to a safe place, like a sobering up centre, instead of being locked in a police cell under criminal or civil police powers.
Read MoreDisinformation is being used as a powerful weapon to gain public support for regressive movements that want to wind-back human rights. The Human Rights Law Centre is pushing for laws to prevent social media companies from amplifying lies and disinformation designed to distort important political debate.
Read MoreIn 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 MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is assisting Ned Kelly Emeralds in a series of legal challenges that could see people who have sought safety housed in the community, rather than in oppressive detention centres. Ned won the first appeal in the High Court – an important step to securing his freedom.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has launched the Whistleblower Project, a new initiative to support people who speak out in the public interest.
Read MoreReza Berati was just 23 years old when he was brutally murdered at the Manus Island Detention Centre. Until now, there has been very little justice or accountability. After years of fighting for some measure of justice, Reza’s family have finally settled their claim against the defendants on confidential terms.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre supports all elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart – the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution, Treaty and Truth-telling.
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