Kumanjayi Langdon died alone in a Darwin police cell, after being locked up under the Northern Territory’s controversial “paperless arrest” laws. His crime was drinking in a public place, an offence that carries a $74 fine.
Read MoreLegislation to create safe access zones around abortion clinics is another welcome step towards ridding our society of all forms of violence against women.
Read MoreAustralia is locking up more people than ever before and many of Australia's prison practices breach the UN's new standards, writes the HRLC's Ruth Barson.
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If we want justice for women in the workplace we need to see work-life balance as an important issue for men as well as women - Catherine Branson QC's 2015 Law and Justice Address.
Read MoreDon't let the crocodile tears of our politicians persuade you otherwise - punishing the survivors of risky voyages will achieve nothing but more suffering, writes our Director of Communications, Tom Clarke.
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Successive governments have been vying to draft the harshest refugee policies. We can do better than this, writes Hugh de Kretser. Read More
Another Aboriginal person was locked up for minor offences and died in custody. On these bare facts alone, as a nation we should be outraged, writes Eddie Cubillo.
Read MoreThe HRLC's Tom Clarke looks at whether the back-peddling has already begun on Indonesia's announcement that it will let foreign journalists into West Papua.
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The HRLC’s Anna Brown contributed an essay on progress on the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people in the Oceania region to ILGA's 10th edition of its State-Sponsored Homophobia Report.
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The Australian government should come clean on its role in the US drone program before buying its own, writes the HRLC's Emily Howie.
Read MoreChan & Sukumaran have been denied the chance to learn from their mistakes. We owe it to them to learn from ours, writes the HRLC's Daniel Webb.
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While ongoing commitments and efforts to secure the rights of the world’s women and girls are commendable, on no measure can we say that our work is done, writes Natasha Stott Despoja, Australia’s Ambassador for Women and Girls.
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There’s no question that 2014 was a big year for LGBTI equality in Victoria, but there’s still unfinished business on our wish list for 2015 writes the HRLC’s Anna Brown.
Read MoreScott Morrison's Migration and Maritime Powers Bill is a truly appalling piece of legislation. Its repugnance is surpassed only by the tactics used to secure its passage, writes the HRLC's Daniel Webb.
Read MoreWe cannot close the gap when so many indigenous men, women and children are behind bars, writes the HRLC's Ruth Barson.
Read MoreHRLC Executive Director, Hugh de Kretser, delivered a speech at the Australian Communities Foundation’s end of year event. Here’s what he had to say.
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Australia recently argued before the Committee Against Torture that violence against women does not fall within the Committee’s mandate. Australia was unequivocally wrong to do so – both legally and ethically, writes the HRLC's Ruth Barson
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While the public outrage at Blessington and Elliot's crime was justified, the subsequent campaign of populist and retrospective law reform was not, writes the HRLC's Daniel Webb.
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Bronson Blessington and Matthew Elliott were 14 and 16 respectively when they participated in the 1988 rape and murder of Janine Balding, one of the most shocking and abhorrent crimes in NSW history.
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'Why build prisons when we can build communities?' asks Carol, grandmother of Julieka Dhu, in the HRLC's Ruth Barson's opinion piece about Aboriginal deaths in custody.
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