Earlier this year, the Victorian Government passed the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities, becoming the first state to enact comprehensive legislative protection of civil and political human rights. The right to freedom and protection from discrimination, an integral component of the international human rights framework, is enshrined in s 8 of the Charter. Regrettably, however, the right is limited to protection from those forms of discrimination that are already prohibited by Victoria’s Equal Opportunity Act. This calls for urgent reform
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On 18 August 2006, the Victorian Court of Appeal quashed convictions against Jack Thomas for receiving funds from a terrorist organisation and possessing a falsified Australian passport. Mr Thomas had previously been found guilty of these offences on the basis of self-inculpatory admissions made during an interview conducted by Australian Federal Police (‘AFP’) in Pakistan on 8 March 2003. The Court of Appeal quashed the convictions because these admissions constituted the only evidence to incriminate Mr Thomas.
Read MoreHuman rights considerations and compliance are critical components of good public policy. At every point in planning social and economic policy, or in developing new legislation, guidance can be found in the primary principles of respect for the rule of law and observance of human rights.
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Rights, without a forum in which to give them expression, are merely rhetorical. This, surely, is one reason that civil and political rights glamorously strut the human rights stage. They appear in our newspapers. People regularly protest their violation. Nations are (sometimes) diplomatically spanked for breaching them. This is possible because they are exposed.
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In the grand scheme of human rights law, some rights are more equal than others. Consider, for example, the right to life in art 6 of the ICCPR. The UN Human Rights Committee calls it the ‘supreme right’ from which no derogation is permissible. Nothing justifies a State’s failure to guarantee it. Few human rights compare for gravity. But at least one other does: the right to freedom from torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Read MoreThe quality of a democracy can be gauged by the extent to which its electoral process is inclusive of maligned sectors of society writes Waleed Aly in The Age.
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On a recent visit to Australia, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Paul Hunt, reflected on the global trend towards the legislative entrenchment and judicial recognition of economic, social and cultural rights, such as the rights to education, adequate housing and health care. Increasingly, he said, domestic legislatures and courts are recognising that economic, social and cultural rights are as concrete and important as their civil and political cousins.
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The Australian ‘reluctance about rights’ and the gap between international human rights law and Australian domestic law, policy and practice are well documented. Despite ratifying all of the major international human rights treaties, Australia has not fully implemented or incorporated their provisions into domestic law. Australia remains the only Western democracy without a legislatively or constitutionally enshrined charter of human rights.
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