Human Rights Act for Australia
20 November 2009, 11:55AM
© peterhg (Flickr)
Australia is the only liberal democracy in the world without overarching human rights protection.
Some of our human rights are protected by Australian law, but many are not - including many that people think are already protected. For example, we assume our right to free speech is protected by law, but it isn't - only our right to political speech is protected, nothing else.
Since the announcement of a National Human Rights Consultation on 10 December 2008, over 10,000 individual submissions were handed over by Amnesty International Australia to Mary Kostakidis, Human Rights Consultation Committee member, on Friday 12 June. These are the submissions that we received from people all over the country in support of a Human Rights Act for Australia.
On 8 October 2009 the Commonwealth Attorney-General released the Committee’s highly anticipated report. The Committee found overwhelming community support for a Human Rights Act and has recommended that the government adopt a federal Human Rights Act. Read about the Consultation and the Committee’s recommendations (pdf 1.11Mb).
Why do we need human rights protection?
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 the sedition laws passed as part of our anti-terror legislation. There is also the potential for free speech on the internet - or in any other forum - to be censored without legal protection of our right to free speech.
We are left relying on the Government to protect our basic human rights, and we have no legal avenue to challenge them if they are abused. While it is marginalised communities whose human rights are most at risk of being violated, human rights of all people are in truth always at risk of being violated if not protected.
How should our human rights be protected?
A Human Rights Act for Australia is the best way to ensure that the human rights of all people are protected. The Act would be a national law that protects the fundamental rights of everyone in Australia - the rights outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Those rights include things like our freedom of speech, freedom of association, right to education, a home and to be treated with dignity.
For a Human Rights Act, we propose legislation similar to the UK system, where human rights are protected by ordinary statute and can be altered by Parliament if needed.
The National Human Rights Consultation
On 10 December 2008 the Rudd government announced a nationwide Consultation to examine the protection and promotion of human rights and responsibilities in Australia. For over eight months the National Human Rights Consultation Committee chaired by Father Frank Brennan, conducted over 66 community roundtables in 52 locations across Australia and received an impressive 35,014 individual submissions. In addition, the Committee met with parliamentarians, senior public servants, judges, representatives of non-governmental organisations, and commissioned two independent research projects and a cost-benefits analysis.
Amnesty International alone received submissions from a diverse range of professions including nurses, church ministers, company directors, job seekers, and pensioners from urban and regional areas across the nation - thus dispelling the myth that only lawyers and academics are interested in human rights.
The results are in
On 8 October 2009 the Commonwealth Attorney-General released the Committee’s highly anticipated report. After widespread public engagement, the Committee found overwhelming community support for a Human Rights Act.
Of the 33,356 submissions which addressed the option of a charter of rights or a Human Rights Act, 29,153 were in favour of this option. This is in line with the findings of an opinion poll commissioned by Amnesty International, which found that 81 per cent of people surveyed would support the introduction of a law to protect human rights in Australia. Reflecting the support of Australian community, the Committee has recommended that the government adopt a federal Human Rights Act.
Amnesty International welcomes this recommendation in addition to the Committee’s other 30 recommendations to better protect and promote human rights in Australia. Other significant recommendations in the Committee’s report include:
- enhancing a human rights culture and education in the public sector and the community generally
- improving parliamentary scrutiny of human rights
- conducting an audit of all federal legislation, policies and practices to determine their compliance with human rights
- strengthening the Australian Human Rights Commission
- recognising the human rights of Indigenous Australians
Amnesty International is concerned, however, that the Committee draws a distinction between the treatment of economic, cultural and social rights and the treatment of civil and political rights. Under the proposed Human Rights Act the Committee has recommended that economic, cultural and social rights not be enforceable in courts. Such a distinction undermines the principle that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated.
Amnesty International is calling for:
The government to implement the Committee’s recommendation to adopt a federal Human Rights Act that:
- protects the rights of all people in Australia
- respects the principle that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated, and therefore recognises all civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights
- establishes effective and independent accountability mechanisms, including appropriate and accessible remedies for breaches
- mirrors Australia’s obligations to international human rights laws
The government said it would respond to the report by the end of 2009.
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