The Victorian Government is requiring people in Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire to wear a face covering or mask when leaving their home to help stop the spread of COVID-19. This explainer seeks to debunk claims that the requirement breaches people’s human rights.
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This week marks four years since then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that no person seeking asylum by boat would ever be allowed to stay in Australia. Instead, people fleeing persecution would be warehoused indefinitely on the remote Pacific islands of Manus and Nauru.
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If you are reading this on your computer, phone or tablet, chances are it was made in China by a worker like 18-year-old Xiao Ya.
Xiao left her home town in rural China to find work to help support her ageing parents. She got a job cleaning tablet screens in Guangzhou, in one of the big factories which produce 90 per cent of the world's electronics.
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Australia now looks certain to take a seat at the UN’s Human Rights Council, but will Australia play a spoiling or constructive role? The Human Rights Law Centre’s Tom Clarke takes a look at Australia’s track record in Geneva.
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“Tough on crime” was a stance that coloured many policies of the former Country Liberal Government in the Northern Territory. It was sold as the silver bullet to drive down youth crime rates and make communities safer. It was built up to be the solution to community fears of a so-called epidemic in youth crime that was fuelled by a willing media.
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An urgent complaint has been made to the United Nations about Australia’s discriminatory youth justice systems and how they seriously violate the human rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
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The Human Rights Law Centre calls on all parties and independents at the 2025 Federal Election to put human rights at the heart of government decision making and improve the dignity, equality, and fair access to justice for all people in Australia.
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Everyone has the right to feel included, respected and have a sense of belonging in our community.
Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which Australia pledged in 1975 to do in accordance with international law.
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In March, Associate Legal Director, Kieran Pender was at the ACT Court of Appeal to observe McBride’s appeal – he is challenging his conviction, and the severity of his sentence.
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International Women’s Day is more than an anniversary, it’s a global celebration of what has been achieved over centuries of campaigning and action by women fighting for equality.
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The Human Rights Law Centre has filed an urgent High Court challenge on behalf of a man who was scheduled to be deportated to Nauru. After filing the legal challenge, the Australian Government promised that our client would not be removed before his case was finished.
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A wave of new federal and state laws have recently been introduced under the guise of protecting against hate speech and vilification. The Human Rights Law Centre is advocating to strengthen protections while also calling for evidence-based prevention and education programs.
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A new report on the right to housing commissioned by the Human Rights Law Centre and authored by Professor Jessie Hohmann from the UTS Faculty of Law shifts the discussion to people, not prices.
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Commissioned by the Human Rights Law Centre and authored by Professor Jessie Hohmann from the UTS Faculty of Law, this new report shows how an Australian Human Rights Act could person should have a safe, secure and healthy place to call home, regardless of their postcode or bank balance.
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Whistleblowers make Australia a better place by speaking up about wrongdoing and corruption. The Human Rights Law Centre's Whistleblower Project is making it easier for you to access the legal information about your rights while considering whether or not you need to make a disclosure. Our team have produced these legal information guides for public and private sector workers.
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The laws, if passed, would have wide-ranging implications for the right to peaceful assembly and may lead to the criminalisation of conduct which does not impact on the rights of people to practice their religion and be protected from racial or religious hatred.
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Human rights defenders, community groups, journalists, activists, and whistleblowers must be protected from being dragged through expensive and exhausting lawsuits by powerful corporations.
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The Queensland Crisafulli Government’s latest legislation, the Making Queensland Safer Act 2024 (Act), substantially changes how children are treated by Queensland’s police, courts and prisons, including by making prison sentences significantly longer. The Queensland Government concedes that the changes are ‘more punitive than necessary to achieve community safety’ and ‘in direct conflict with international law standards’. ¹
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