Amnesty International is looking forward to contributing to the Government's consultation about how people in Australia would like their human rights protected.

"Australia is the only liberal democracy in the world which doesn’t have national overarching human rights protection," said Amnesty International Australia Campaign Coordinator Sophie Peer.

"We are delighted to hear details of the consultation and we will be doing all we can to help everyone take part in the discussion about the future of human rights in this country," said Sophie Peer. "We welcome the announcement that the committee will be travelling to regional and rural areas to gather input from a diverse range of Australians."

Amnesty International is calling for a Human Rights Act that guarantees binding legal protection of the human rights of everyone living in Australia.

In recent times we have seen how human rights are vulnerable to being undermined by government policies, such as mandatory detention of asylum seekers and our anti-terror laws.

"We would like to see legislation that protects all of our rights, across the board, from the right to education to the right to work. It must also include our economic, social and cultural rights. How can you meaningfully exercise your right to vote when you don’t have enough food to eat or somewhere to live?" said Sophie Peer.

Amnesty International believes that an effective Human Rights Act will generate more debate and awareness about human rights among members of the public. We also encourage the government to roll out human rights training for policy-makers.

The organisation believes that having the government consider the human rights implications of proposed new laws would be a valuable step towards strengthening Australia's human rights culture.

"Every person on earth -- no matter where they are from, regardless of their gender, religion or ethnicity -- is born with a basic set of rights and freedoms," said Sophie Peer.

"Today we mark the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. One very effective step towards the enjoyment of these rights by all in Australia would be through the introduction of a Human Rights Act into Australian law," said Sophie Peer.