We 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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It is a well-established principle of international human rights law that children shouldn't be locked up without any meaningful prospect of ever being released.
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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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Indonesia's incoming president presents a promising opportunity for Australia to recast both its military and human rights relationship with our northern neighbour, writes the HRLC's Tom Clarke.
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The high court case surrounding the detention of 157 Tamil asylum seekers this year shows how Australia’s refugee policies are failing us, writes the HRLC's Daniel Webb.
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Australia often promotes human rights at a diplomatic and economic level on the world stage, yet these calls will fail to ring true while we struggle to acknowledge or fully comprehend the meaning of rights at home, writes former Victorian AG Rob Hulls.
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Indonesia's incoming president presents a promising opportunity for Australia to recast both its military and human rights relationship with our northern neighbour.
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In 1977, long time gay rights activist Jamie Gardiner wrote a brief seeking expungement of homosexual convictions. Last week, he sat in Victoria’s parliament and watched it happen. Here he reflects on his decades long journey from campaigning for the decriminalization of homosexuality in the 1970’s to the challenges that reamin today.
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What will it take for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' over-imprisonment trajectory to change course, asks the HRLC's Ruth Barson.
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Across the globe, civil society advocacy is increasingly being threatened by laws and practices that criminalise protest, prevent association, threaten funding and curtail independence, writes the HRLC's Hugh de Kretser.
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The HRLC’s Anna Brown reports on her recent advocacy work in Geneva and the passage of the crucially important resolution on sexual orientation and gender identity by the UN Human Rights Council.
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Scott Morrison's 'Cambodia deal' takes Australia further from the genuine regional solution that’s needed, writes the HRLC's Daniel Webb.
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The apology by Victoria Police for their actions at the Tasty raid 20 years ago marks an historical turning point in relations between Victoria Police and the gay and lesbian community, writes the HRLC’s Anna Brown.
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HRLC's Ruth Barson discusses the loss of the preexisting global consensus that torture is unequivocally immoral and illegal Interview with Juan Mendez, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Torture.
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Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s comment that Australia was an ‘unsettled or scarcely settled great south land’ prior to colonisation, could hardly have come at a more inopportune time: on the eve of NAIDOC week.
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Writing in the Herald Sun, the HRLC's Daniel Webb outlines the case against sending asylum seekers to places where they risk torture or death.
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It's a violation of Sri Lanka's migration law to leave the country unofficially. Most of the asylum seekers Australia is returning to Sri Lanka's navy will be charged – or worse, writes the HRLC's Emily Howie.
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The HRLC's Daniel Webb provides an overview of Scott Morrison's proposed changes that will significantly increase the risk of people being returned to countries where they face torture or death.
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Edited transcript of keynote address by Hina Jilani - a pioneering human rights lawyer, pro-democracy campaigner, leading activist in Pakistan's women's movement and international champion of human rights - delivered at the Annual Human Rights Dinner.
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A conversation about Australia's involvement in the US’s program of deadly drone strikes is long overdue, writes the HRLC's Emily Howie.
Read MoreSue Hackney reflects on the journey to the landmark anti-discrimination decision in Victoria thanks to a group of same-sex attracted young people who took issue with a religious group's refusal to allow them to use a camp site.
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We can reduce prison populations, prison spending and the crime rate at the same time, writes the HRLC's Hugh de Kretser.
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This briefing paper is intended to provide background on the Guiding Principles and outline the case for the development of an Australian NAP. It draws on the experience of other states and on the significant work of UN bodies, civil society organisations and National Human Rights Institutions that are working to promote coherent and effective practice in the implementation of the Guiding Principles.
Read MoreFor survivors of child sexual abuse seeking justice, the process of civil litigation can be re-traumatising, and present complex barriers, explains Knowmore's Executive Officer, Jenny Hardy.
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Appeals to freedom are essentially calls to prioritise a right to discriminate over fair and equal access to employment, education and services, writes Rachel Ball.
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The Human Rights Law Centre's Emily Howie writes that Australia has been silent on a United Nations push for an inquiry into war crimes in Sri Lanka because the Coalition is more concerned about "stopping the boats" .
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The Australian Human Rights Commission’s Race Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Tim Soutphommasane, asks whether scrapping section 18C of the RDA will unleash a wave of humiliation of the vulnerable.
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A new report has found that Australia’s co-operation with Sri Lanka to prevent would-be-refugees from seeking protection is riddled with human rights risks and should be stopped immediately.
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Proposed voter ID laws will cause more problems than they will solve writes University of Queensland’s Graeme Orr and the HRLC’s Emily Howie.
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The reckless disclosure of the personal details of 10,000 asylum seekers adds another layer to the risk they may face – they could be further persecuted on return to their countries, writes the HRLC's Daniel Webb.
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The HRLC's Executive Director, Hugh de Kretser, outlines his human rights priorities and the challenges that lie ahead in 2014.
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Australia needs to immediately reconsider its support for Sri Lanka’s interception of asylum seekers, writes the HRLC's Director of Advocacy & Research, Emily Howie.
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With three more appointments to the Australian Human Rights Commission due in the next 12 months, the HRLC's Hugh de Kretser writes there's a pressing need to adopt a selection process that avoids accusations of political bias.
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The Human Rights Law Centre has produced a report on the need for legislation to erase the criminal records of homosexual men who were convicted for having consensual sex in the past when it was illegal.
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The NSW lower house has recently passed the Crimes Amendment (Zoe’s Law) Bill (No. 2) 2013 to amend the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). This version of Zoe’s Law establishes a separate offence for actions that cause serious harm to or the destruction of a foetus. There are a wide range of legitimate criticisms of Zoe’s Law that need examination before the Bill comes before the NSW upper house early next year.
Read MoreOver 1,000 children are still locked up. They are more in need of the attention of the Australian Human Rights Commission than a powerful commentator, writes the HRLC's Rachel Ball.
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