The HRLC’s Director of Advocacy and Strategic Litigation Anna Brown has been recognised for her work to advance the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.
Read MoreSeventy seven organisations have united to warn that Australia’s standards are sliding when it comes to the prevention of torture and cruel treatment.
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 MoreTonight the Victorian Parliament became the first Australian jurisdiction to formally acknowledge that sex between consenting men should never have been a crime.
Read MoreAustralia is scheduled to be reviewed under the Universal Periodic Review of Australia ('UPR') in 2015. This is an opportunity for non-government organisations (‘NGOs’) across Australia to prepare a joint NGO submission to the UPR.
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 MoreThe HRLC is one of twelve organisations to sign a joint statement calling on the Northern Territory Government to rethink their proposal to lock up young people in a run-down jail, deemed unfit for adults. The Northern Territory is one of the only jurisdictions in Australia to have increasing youth detention rates. Almost all of the young people in detention in the Northern Territory are Aboriginal, and many come from disadvantaged backgrounds including being exposed to drug and alcohol misuse, violence, and neglect.
Read MoreIn its rush to expel – via a sub-standard screening process – Sri Lankans who arrive in Australia by boat, Australia places those people at risk of torture, rape and ill treatment in Sri Lankan custody.
Read MoreThe United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted a landmark resolution on combating violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The HRLC’s Directory of Advocacy, Anna Brown, was present in Geneva and worked together with advocates on the passage of resolution.
Read MoreThere is plenty of devil in the detail of the Immigration Minister’s latest reforms, introduced into Federal Parliament today.
Read MoreThe United Nations Human Rights Council is set to vote on an historic resolution tackling violence and discrimination against sexual minorities. The HRLC's Directory of Advocacy, Anna Brown, is present in Geneva and delivered a statement to the Council calling on the international community to support a resolution condemning violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Read MoreA formal OECD complaint has been lodged against multinational security contractor G4S for failing to meet international standards and committing serious human rights violations in relation to conditions and abuse of asylum seekers detained at the Manus Regional Processing Centre.
Read MoreThe Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea is due tomorrow to consider whether an important PNG National Court inquiry examining the lawfulness of the Manus Island detention centre should be allowed to resume.
Read MoreThe United Nation’s Human Rights Council – the world’s peak human rights body – has been alerted to Australia’s rapidly increasing imprisonment rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Read MoreThe NSW Government will join Victoria in erasing the criminal records of men who were convicted for having consensual sex in the past when homosexuality was illegal.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre and the Victorian Gay & Lesbian Rights Lobby today welcomed the Victorian Government's announcement that it will introduce legislation to erase the criminal records of people convicted of unjust crimes before 1981 when homosexuality was illegal.
Read MoreThe Australian Bureau of Statistics released figures last week showing that Australia now imprisons 18 per cent more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women than it did 12 months ago.
Read MoreIn his maiden speech to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, will condemned Australia for violating the human rights of asylum seekers.
Read MoreEach year, King & Wood Mallesons and the National Children’s and Youth Law Centre, work with the Human Rights Law Centre to publish a special edition of our Monthly Bulletin, Rights Agenda, that focuses exclusively on human rights and legal issues affecting children and young people.
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 High Court will sit in Canberra on the 14 and 15 of October to consider the legality of the Australian Government’s decision to detain 157 Tamil asylum seekers on board a customs vessel on the High Seas for nearly a month.
Read MoreProposed amendments to the Migration Act would significantly increase the risk of people being returned to persecution, the HRLC has said in a submission to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee.
Read MoreThe election of a new Indonesian President presents the Australian Government with an opportunity to review its relationship with the Indonesian military.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has welcomed the announcement that the Australian Government has “taken off the table” proposals drafted by the Commonwealth Attorney General, George Brandis, to weaken Australia’s racial discrimination laws.
Read MoreLawyers for the 157 Tamil asylum seekers today revealed that Australian Government officers told the group they would be forced to go to India in three orange lifeboats dropped into the ocean somewhere off the coast of India.
Read MoreLawyers assisting 157 asylum seekers secretly sent overnight to Nauru today condemned the Government’s actions.
Read MoreAustralia’s current laws on marriage leave same-sex couples in a maze of legal uncertainty when it comes to recognition of foreign marriages, and are inconsistent with international law.
Read MoreNew figures revealed today show that a large majority of submissions to the Australian Government oppose controversial proposed changes to Australia’s racial vilification laws.
Read MoreGovernments should ensure that people with disabilities fully enjoy the right to vote by ensuring that all people who express a wish to vote are provided necessary supports and assistance.
Read MoreImmigration Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed reports that the Australian customs vessel carrying 157 Tamil asylum seekers is on its way to Australian territory.
Read MoreOn the eve of the World AIDS Conference 2014, Victorian Health Minister David Davis announced plans to amend the Crimes Act to remove discrimination against people living with HIV. The announcement was cautiously welcomed by NGOs, but clarification was sought on key details.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has joined with 12 other NGOs to urgently call for greater accountability for police misconduct in Victoria in the wake of a UN Human Rights Committee finding in favour of Ms Corinna Horvath who was brutally assaulted by police in 1996 and is yet to receive adequate compensation for her injuries.
Read MoreThe UN Human Rights Council has adopted two new resolutions on business and human rights.
Read MoreThe HRLC has taken a range of urgent steps to prevent Sri Lankan asylum seekers being handed over to the very regime they claim to be fleeing.
Read MoreThe HRLC last night sent a request for urgent action to the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The request relates to two groups of Sri Lankan asylum seekers, including at least 37 children, who were reportedly travelling to Australia to claim protection but have not been heard from for four days after reportedly being intercepted by Australian authorities.
Read MoreThe HRLC’s Director of Advocacy and Strategic Litigation, Anna Brown, said Australia was failing to live up to a number of the promises it made three years ago when its human rights record came under scrutiny during its regular review by its peers at the UN – a process known as the Universal Periodic Review.
Read MoreAustralia’s unlawful and increasingly punitive treatment of asylum seekers has once again been condemned on the world stage. Overnight a statement prepared by the Human Rights Law Centre was delivered to the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva, the world’s peak human rights body.
Read MoreIt’s that time of year again when we gather an eclectic collection of goods, services and experiences for our Fundraising Auctions to be held at the Annual Human Rights Dinners that we host with Justice Connect – this year in Melbourne on 13 June and in Sydney on 20 June.
Read MoreNew laws to oversee the Northern Territory's prison system will not address the endemic over-imprisonment of Aboriginal people and fail to respect basic rights, warns the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency and the Human Rights Law Centre.
Read MoreAmnesty International and the Human Rights Law Centre have appeared at the Senate, Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee Inquiry into the events that occurred on Manus Island in February of this year that left one asylum seeker dead.
Read MoreIn a joint open letter sent to Attorney-General George Brandis today, over 120 Aboriginal, ethnic, community, union, legal, religious and human rights organisations urged the Federal Government to abandon its controversial proposal to roll back racial vilification protections.
Read MoreThe HRLC is delighted to announce the appointment of Ruth Barson as a Senior Lawyer. Ruth has joined us from the Centre for Innovative Justice, and prior to that has worked at Victoria Legal Aid as well as various Aboriginal legal services in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Read MoreAustralia’s new approach to development assistance focuses on private sector development and pays insufficient attention to the human rights goals and obligations that should be central to our aid program.
Read MoreIt has been revealed during a Senate Estimates hearing that the Australian Government has made payments towards the Papua New Guinean Government’s legal costs for proceedings relating to the asylum seeker detention centre on Manus Island.
Read MoreThe key recommendation of a Government-commissioned investigation into the recent violence inside the Manus Island detention centre is to process and resettle asylum seekers quickly and fairly.
Read MoreOver the past 18 months, the Human Rights Law Centre, together with our partners the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, has been working to bring key national agencies together to address the national crisis that is the over imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Read MoreThe Queensland government has passed the first voter ID laws in Australia limiting the right of Queenslanders to vote, particularly members of already marginalised and disadvantaged groups.
Read MoreThe recent violence inside the Manus Island detention centre was a foreseeable and preventable result of the circumstances in which asylum seekers have been transferred and detained, the Human Rights Law Centre has told the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee in a written submission.
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 Australian Government should not proceed with proposed changes to racial vilification laws, the Human Rights Law Centre has recommended in its submission to the public consultation process on proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act.
Read MoreThe Australian Government should not introduce reforms which prioritise administrative convenience over protection from persecution, the HRLC has said in a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee.
Read MoreA significant judgment today restored some balance to equal opportunity laws but has sparked calls for reform to limit discrimination by religious groups.
Read MoreNoble defences of unlimited free speech make for good debate, but a poor society. The hardest cases help us find the boundaries of acceptable speech, write Rachel Ball and Anna Brown.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has released an Information Paper to help individuals and organisations give feedback to the Federal Government on the proposed changes to racial vilification laws. The paper provides an overview of the current law and the proposed changes and also summarises the HRLC’s views on the changes.
Read MoreThe High Court has delivered a landmark judgment that recognises sex other than male or female, representing a victory for growing numbers of gender diverse people across Australia.
Read MoreIn an extremely unprincipled foreign policy decisions, Australia’s Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, has aligned Australia with countries known for their obstructionist approach at the UN with her comments expressing disappointment with the UN Human Rights Council’s decision to initiate an independent investigations into war crimes and human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.
Read MoreAmnesty International, assisted by the Human Rights Law Centre, was granted leave to participate in the PNG National Court’s inquiry examining whether PNG human rights laws are being breached by the detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island.
Read MoreThe United Nations Human Rights Council should pass resolution 25/1 to establish an international investigation into alleged war crimes committed in the final months of the Sri Lankan civil war, according to a statement jointly delivered to the UN in Geneva today by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the Human Rights Law Centre.
Read MoreThis page contains materials and background information on Australia’s racial vilification laws, as well as link to further materials.
Read MoreAustralia has one last opportunity this week to publicly support a US-led initiative at the United Nations to end impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the final phases of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre strongly criticised proposed new racial vilification legislation released earlier today by Attorney-General George Brandis.
Read MoreAustralia’s unlawful and increasingly harsh and punitive treatment of asylum seekers arriving by boat will once again be brought the attention of the world’s peak human rights body this evening when the Human Rights Law Centre addresses the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Read MoreAmnesty International, assisted by the Human Rights Law Centre, has been granted leave to participate in a powerful PNG National Court inquiry examining whether PNG human rights laws are being breached by the detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island.
Read MoreAustralia violates its international law obligations by aiding the Sri Lankan government to intercept asylum seekers fleeing that country, the United Nations Human Rights Council has been told overnight in Geneva.
Read MoreThe Federal Government’s mooted changes to racial vilification protections, reported today in The Australian, have caused serious concern among community organisations that work with people affected by racist hate speech.
Read MoreA new report highlights various ways in which Australia's co-operation with Sri Lanka’s military puts asylum seekers at risk. The report includes a DFAT cable obtained under Freedom of Information laws that reveals the Australia Federal Police declined to interview a man claiming to have been severely tortured after being sent back to Sri Lanka by Australia.
Read MoreA new report has found that Australia’s cooperation with Sri Lanka to prevent would-be-refugees from seeking protection is riddled with human rights risks and should be stopped immediately.
Read MoreThe Melbourne City Council is facing legal action over its failure to ensure safe access medical services at an East Melbourne health clinic.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre today rejected comments by Lord Mayor Robert Doyle who claimed the Melbourne City Council felt “impotent” to act against anti-abortion protestors who for decades have beset the East Melbourne Fertility Control Clinic. Cr Doyle welcomed new laws allowing police to move on protesters and said they would help remove the protestors from the front of the clinic.
Read MoreAustralia must review its offshore processing arrangements with PNG and Nauru to ensure the basic rights of asylum seekers are being respected, says the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. Ms Pillay has released the opening statement on her 2013 Annual Report, discussing issues of worldwide human rights concern.
Read MoreAdvocates for sex and gender diverse communities will make written submission in a landmark case before the High Court examining whether legal documents should recognise sex categories other than just male and female.
Read MoreIt has been discovered that the acting head of the Manus Island detention centre on PNG is a former Sri Lankan military commander. Among the detainees at Manus Island are 30 Tamil asylum seekers – people who may well have experienced significant suffering at the hands of the Sri Lankan military.
Read MoreR. P. B. v the Philippines, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Views: Communication No 34/2011, 57th sess, UN Doc CEDAW/C/57/D/34/2011 (23 May 2011)
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has found that the Philippines breached the rights of a mute and hearing impaired girl to non-discrimination under the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), in the investigation and trial of her alleged rape. The Philippines had, in investigating the crime and in the trial, failed to provide a free interpreter and had used stereotypes and gender-based myths, disregarding the victim’s specific situation as a girl who is both mute and hearing impaired. The Committee noted that the obligations of the State include the obligation to consider the specific situation of the complainant, being her age and disability.
Read MoreOn 12 December the Senate announced an inquiry into the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. The Act, among other things, allows for the interception and access of telecommunications data by Government agencies in certain circumstances. In some cases this means access by local governments and agencies to your personal data without a warrant, or indeed any judicial oversight
Read MoreA new complaints mechanism under the UN Convention on Rights of Child is about to take effect. On 14 January 2014, Costa Rica became the tenth state to ratify the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure, meaning that three months’ time, on 14 April 2014, the complaints mechanism will come into force.
Read MoreFrom 20-28 November 2013, Australia joined 121 other States Parties, members of civil society and other stakeholders in The Hague for the 12th annual Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). As the governing and legislative body of the ICC, the ASP discusses and decides on issues central to the Court's operations. The main topics of debate set for the 12th session were cooperation and the impact of the Rome Statute system on victims; however, at the request of the African Union, a special segment was held on the indictment of sitting heads of State and government and its consequences for peace, stability, and reconciliation.
Read MoreUrgent action from the United Nations has been requested in an attempt to prevent the Queensland Government from passing draconian youth justice laws. The reforms include removing the principle that the detention of juveniles be a measure of last resort.
Read MoreGiving evidence to a parliamentary inquiry today, the HRLC’s Director of Legal Advocacy, Daniel Webb, said proposed reforms place ASIO assessments at the centre of refugee processing but contain no safeguards to ensure the security assessment process is fair or accountable.
Read MoreProposed new ‘move-on’ powers for police in Victoria will unreasonably limit human rights and are susceptible to misuse. The Human Rights Law Centre’s Executive Director, Hugh de Kretser, said protest rights and free speech are particularly threatened, but the proposed laws may also have an impact on young people and the homeless.
Read MoreWhen it comes to protecting people from serious human rights violations, we need a better system than one depending entirely on non-reviewable decisions made by the Immigration Minister, the HRLC has said in a submission to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee.
Read MoreThe Australian Government should scrap discriminatory laws that prevent persons “of unsound mind” from voting, the Human Rights Law Centre has said in a submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission.
Read MoreThe Queensland Government should scrap plans to introduce voter ID laws that could unnecessarily prevent an unknown number of Queenslanders from voting, the Human Rights Law Centre has told a parliamentary committee.
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 MoreRights groups have welcomed the Victorian Government’s announcement today that it will legislate to erase the criminal records of homosexual men who were convicted for having consensual sex in the past when it was illegal.
Read MoreGender stereotyping and discrimination undermine women’s rights to equality before the law and a fair trial, particularly in the case of sexual offences.
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