New laws proposed by the Department of Home Affairs would authorise the creation of a “dragnet database”, compiling images of innocent Australians – including children – from their drivers’ licences, identification cards and passport photos.
Read MoreThe Australian Government should remove unjustified limits on basic rights and freedoms in Australia, said the Human Rights Law Centre today. HRLC Director of Advocacy and Research, Emily Howie, welcomed the Australian Law Reform Commission’s report, Traditional Rights and Freedoms – Encroachments on Commonwealth Laws, that adds to the growing evidence of Australian laws that infringe on rights. Read More
The Citizenship Bill currently before the Australian Parliament is badly flawed and should not be passed, the Human Rights Law Centre said in its submission to the Parliamentary Committee investigating the Bill. Read More
Australia’s counter-terrorism and migration laws unnecessarily and disproportionately interfere with fundamental rights and freedoms and ought to be repealed, the Human Rights Law Centre has said in a submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s (ALRC) inquiry into “Traditional Rights and Freedoms”.
Read MoreProposed new data retention laws create significant risks that private information of Australians will be unlawfully accessed and misused, said the Human Rights Law Centre in a submission to the Senate inquiry into the draft legislation.
Read MoreIf Australia wants to pursue its own military drone program, far greater levels of transparency and rigorous safeguards are absolutely essential, the Human Rights Law Centre will tell the Senate's Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee during its inquiry into Australia's potential purchase of its own drones.
Read MoreParliament should pass a proposed law to preserve and enhance the proper oversight of counter-terrorism and national laws that have serious repercussions for human rights.
Read MoreAustralia’s asylum seeker policies and counter-terror laws came under heavy scrutiny overnight at the United Nations in Geneva when Government officials were questioned by the UN Committee Against Torture.
Read MoreAustralia’s form is bad and getting worse when it comes to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, the United Nations will hear tomorrow.
Read MoreA broad coalition of Australia’s leading academics, media, human rights, legal and migrant organisations today called on the Australian Government to delay the passage of its proposed anti-terror laws to allow more comprehensive scrutiny of the legislation.
Read MoreThe most significant changes to Australia’s counter-terrorism laws in over a decade proposed under the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fighters) Bill 2014 are extraordinary in nature and encroach on fundamental human rights, the Human Rights Law Centre has said in a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security on its review of the Bill.
Read MoreProposed amendments to the ASIO Act introduced into Federal Parliament today would ensure that refugees indefinitely detained on the basis of ASIO security assessments would have the same right to appeal those assessments as everyone else.
Read MoreThe election of a new Indonesian President presents the Australian Government with an opportunity to review its relationship with the Indonesian military.
Read MoreIt is essential that Australia retain robust oversight of the extraordinary powers granted to police and ASIO under Australia’s counter-terrorism laws, the Human Rights Law Centre has told the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee.
Read MoreThe Australian Government should introduce laws that would minimise the risk of Australian policing or military assistance supporting human rights violators.
Read MoreThe rights of refugees shouldn’t be contingent on secretive, non-reviewable ASIO assessments, the HRLC has said in a submission to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee.
Read MoreAustralia should come clean about its role in the controversial American armed drone program after two United Nations human rights experts called for an end to the secrecy shrouding the US program.
Read MoreProposed legislation for the G20 in Queensland would infringe fundamental human rights and stifle legitimate protest, the Human Rights Law Centre has told the Queensland parliament’s Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee.
Read MoreIn a joint letter, the Human Rights Law Centre and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have asked the UN Special Rapporteur on Counter Terrorism to expand a current investigation into the civilian impact of US drone strikes so it also examines Australia's role in locating targets through operations at the joint Aus/US Pine Gap military base.
Read MoreAustralia’s counter terrorism laws unnecessarily restrict fundamental human rights and undermine the rule of law, a research article ‘The Extraordinary Questioning and Detention Powers of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’ published this month in the Melbourne University Law Review has found.
Read MoreOn 19 March 2012, the Federal Government tabled in Parliament the first annual report of the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor on the operation of Australia’s counter-terrorism and national security legislation. The Independent Monitor, Bret Walker SC, was appointed under the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor Act 2010 (Cth) and is empowered to review and report on Australia’s counter-terrorism and national security legislation, including its compliance with Australia’s international human rights obligations. The Independent Monitor’s first report very usefully outlines the principles for assessing whether Australia’s counter-terrorism laws are effective and remain appropriate and also identifies areas where the Independent Monitor will focus his work for 2012.
Read MoreIn December 2010, the UN Committee against Torture issued a ‘List of Issues Prior to Reporting’ for Australia. The purpose of this List is to outline those issues which the Committee would like Australia to address and respond to in its next periodic report to the Committee, due in 2012.
Read MoreOn 14 September 2010, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre wrote to the Attorney-General, the Hon Rob McClelland, urging that the promotion and protection of human rights be a key aim and instrument of the Gillard Government. The Centre set out ten policies which the Government should commit to and implement as a matter of priority and urgency for a fairer Australia.
Read MoreIn conjunction with Brian Walters SC, Neil McAteer of Counsel and Allens Arthur Robinson, the Centre prepared a Note on the Relevance of International Human Rights to Control Order Conditions in the case of David Hicks. The Note was used by Counsel for Mr Hicks in submissions to the Federal Magistrates' Court on 18 February 2008, which resulted in an easing of the conditions and restrictions imposed on Mr Hicks.
Read MoreThe Australian Government should urgently reconsider key aspects of its counter-terrorism laws to bring them into conformity with international human rights standards, a UN report on human rights and counter-terrorism in Australia which was tabled before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 26 March 2007 has found.
Read MoreOn 3 August 2006, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre wrote to various UN Special Rapporteurs in relation to the situation of Mr Amer Haddara, Mr Shane Kent, Mr Izzydeen Attik, Mr Fadal Sayadi, Mr Abdullah Merhi, Mr Ahmed Raad, Mr Ezzit Raad, Mr Hany Taha, Mr Aimen Joud, Mr Shoue Hammoud, Mr Majed Raad, Mr Bassam Raad and Mr Abdul Nacer Benbrika (collectively, ‘the Detainees’). The Detainees have been held as unconvicted remand prisoners in the maximum security Acacia Unit of Barwon Prison in Victoria since November 2005 in the case of nine Detainees and since March 2006 in the case of the remaining three Detainees.
The HRLRC is gravely concerned that the type, length, conditions and effects of the Detainees’ detention amount to serious ongoing human rights violations
Read MoreOn 3 July 2006, the HRLRC filed an affidavit and submissions in support of an application for leave to appear as amicus curiae in the Victorian Court of Appeal in case of Joseph Thomas v The Queen.
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