Torture, the sale of children, arbitrary detention, unlawful killings, extreme poverty and attacks against human rights defenders are all abuses that are investigated and often prevented by independent United Nations human rights experts. However, the UN Human Rights Council (‘Council’) is considering measures to eliminate or weaken the role of these effective human rights champions.
Read MoreThe Australian Government recently signed the new Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in a ceremonial opening of the Convention on 30 March 2007 at the UN Headquarters in New York. This is a significant achievement for people with disability in Australia and globally, many of whom have been engaged in the development of the Convention over many years. The Australian Government is to be congratulated for its contribution to the development and signing of the Convention and for taking this important step in the development of international human rights law. Sadly, however, the signing of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is one positive step amongst an accumulation of much reluctance on the part of the current Australian Government.
Read MoreVictoria’s Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities has now been in force for three months. Although it is too early to evaluate the Charter’s impact, some early insights and reflections are timely. UK Daily Times columnist Melanie Phillips (The Age, 21 March 2007) would have us believe that Victoria has enacted a ‘judicial delivery system for cultural Marxism’. Conservative politicians and commentators made similarly dire predictions prior to the Charter’s commencement, deriding it as a ‘monstrous attack’ on democratic traditions that would empower minority groups and left-wing judges. Meanwhile, the Charter’s proponents describe it as landmark legislation that will strengthen democracy, promote accountability, and ensure respect for fundamental rights and freedoms.
Read More‘Activism’ has been copping a bit of flack recently. Back in October 2005, The Australian columnist Janet Albrechtsen had a go at civil liberties groups, calling them ‘a small band of activist lawyers’ who use the phrase ‘civil libertarian’ as a ‘smokescreen intended to hide political and personal agendas cunningly camouflaged as community welfare’.
Read MoreContrary to what some might have us believe, 1 January 2007 will not, in retrospect, be identified as the date when the corrosion of Victoria’s parliamentary democracy began in earnest with the commencement of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities. Rather, if we fully exploit the opportunities afforded by the Charter, the Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission would argue that we are actually embarking on a path of change that will fundamentally enhance not just our system of government, but our community in general.
Read MoreThe Federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock MP, held up the example of Atticus Finch in a recent article in the Australian in which he attacked pro bono lawyers, saying that, ‘an increasing shade of moral vanity colours pro bono work’. In particular, Mr Ruddock attacked lawyers for attempting to effect ‘broader social and political change’.
Read MoreIt is almost 40 years since the last person was hanged in Australia. Today, the death penalty has been abolished in every Australian jurisdiction. Opposition to the death penalty attracts bi-partisan political support. Yet, in a region where many of our closest neighbours still maintain the death penalty, I believe Australia can – and should – take a stronger stand against state sanctioned execution.
Read MoreEarlier 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
Read MoreOn 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.
Read MoreRights, 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.
Read MoreIn 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.
Read MoreOn 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.
Read MoreThe 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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