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 deserves to work in freedom and dignity.
In December, we made important progress towards stopping Australian companies from profiting from forced labour in their supply chains.
The Human Rights Law Centre is working with communities in Bougainville to seek justice for the environmental devastation left by Rio Tinto’s former Panguna mine. A major independent investigation, the Panguna Mine Legacy Impact Assessment has been released today and confirms what communities have said for decades: they are living with an environmental and human rights disaster.
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In 2021, in response to a human rights complaint brought by 170 local community members, represented by the Human Rights Law Centre, Rio Tinto agreed to fund an independent human rights and environmental impact assessment of the Panguna mine.
Communities in Bougainville have just received the draft results from the investigation, which focused on the most serious areas of concern.
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The Human Rights Law Centre is supporting communities in Bougainville to compel Rio Tinto to fund solutions to the environmental and human rights impacts of its former Panguna mine.
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The Human Rights Law Centre is working with communities in Bougainville to seek justice for the environmental devastation left by Rio Tinto’s Panguna mine. Together, we are calling for action so people can live safely on their land again.
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The Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Albanese Government to strengthen our modern slavery laws. Our laws need requirements on companies to take action to address modern slavery, and penalties for those that do not. We are advocating for independent oversight through a new Anti-Slavery Commissioner.
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From Malaysian workers forced to work around the clock to make PPE, to migrant workers trapped in shocking conditions on Australian farms, many companies continue to turn a blind eye to exploitation and abuse in their supply chains. Our team advocates for stronger laws to end modern slavery.
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The Human Rights Law Centre and Maurice Blackburn are supporting the Berati family in legal action to hold the Australian Government and G4S to account for Reza Berati’s murder at a Manus Island detention centre in 2014
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This report from the Migrant Justice Institute and the Human Rights Law Centre proposes new whistleblower protections to enable migrant workers to address exploitation.
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Broken Promises: Two years of corporate reporting under Australia’s Modern Slavery Act examines the second year of corporate statements submitted to the Government's Modern Slavery Register by 92 companies sourcing from four sectors with known risks of modern slavery: garments from China, rubber gloves from Malaysia, seafood from Thailand and fresh produce from Australia.
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A new report by the Melbourne Social Equity Institute and Human Rights Law Centre, Labour in Limbo: Bridging Visa E holders and Modern Slavery Risk in Australia, casts a new light on the continued suffering of people who sought safety in Australia by boat.
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The recent change of government in Australia represents a much-needed opportunity to revitalise Australia’s approach to corporate respect for human rights, including to reorientate the Modern Slavery Act by requiring companies to undertake effective human rights due diligence aimed at preventing harm.
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A new report, Paper Promises? Evaluating the early impact of Australia’s Modern Slavery Act, examines statements submitted to the Government's Modern Slavery Register by 102 companies sourcing from four sectors with known risks of modern slavery: garments from China, rubber gloves from Malaysia, seafood from Thailand and fresh produce from Australia.
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Mining giant Rio Tinto is responsible for multiple human rights violations caused by pollution from its former mine in Bougainville. For 45 years, the Panguna copper and gold mine on the island of Bougainville was majority-owned by the British-Australian mining company, but in 2016 Rio Tinto divested from the mine, leaving behind more than a billion tonnes of mine waste.
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This report shines a spotlight on ten cases of human rights violations involving Australian multinationals. The cases cut across countries and industries, from ANZ’s involvement in financing land grabs in Cambodia to BHP’s role in the Samarco dam disaster in Brazil and Broadspectrum and Wilson Security’s responsibility for alleged sexual assaults on refugee women and children held in offshore detention on Nauru.
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Rana Plaza is often described as the garment industry’s “worst industrial accident”, but the industry practices that led to it were far from accidental writes Keren Adams.
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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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