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Focus Areas – People in Detention
In a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee, the HRLC has recommended the enactment of the Crimes Amendment (Fairness for Minors) Bill 2011 (Cth). The Bill, introduced by Greens’ Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, responds to concerns about Australia’s treatment of children and persons claiming to be children who are suspected of people smuggling crimes. [...]
Proposed Greens’ amendments to the Migration Act 1958 to abolish mandatory sentences for people smuggling offences are essential to protect human rights and the rule of law, according to the Human Rights Law Centre. “There is no place for mandatory sentencing in a healthy democracy governed by the rule of law,” said Rachel Ball, the [...]
Australia is scheduled to be reviewed by the UN Committee against Torture for its compliance with the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 2012-13. This page contains a summary of the HRLC’s key activities and developments in relation to this review. HRLC outlines further issues for Australia [...]
The Deterring People Smuggling Bill 2011 was introduced into Parliament on 1 November 2011. On 3 November 2011 the Senate referred the Bill for inquiry and report. The Bill amends the people smuggling offences in the Migration Act 1958. Existing sections 233A and 233C of the Migration Act establish a primary people smuggling offence and [...]
A Human Rights Law Centre submission to the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor has called for comprehensive reform of Australia’s counter-terrorism laws and measures to enhance their effectiveness and to better respect and protect fundamental human rights. The Monitor was appointed under the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor Act 2010 (Cth) and is empowered to [...]
Reform of the regulation, training and monitoring of police use of force is necessary to enhance community safety and ensure Victoria Police comply with human rights. Victoria Police use force, on average, every 2.5 hours. Almost three quarters of these incidents involve the use of capsicum spray. There have been at least 12 people shot [...]
In June 2011, the Human Rights Law Centre collaborated with the Federation of Community Legal Centres, Darebin Community Legal Centre and Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre to publish a report entitled Effective, Transparent, Accountable: An Independent System to Investigate Police-Related Deaths in Victoria. Police-related deaths can occur in a range of ways including police [...]
On 31 May 2011 the Centre made a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee opposing the enactment of the Migration Amendment (Strengthening the Character Test and Other Provisions) Bill 2011. The Bill, introduced in response to recent unrest in the Christmas Island and Villawood Immigration Detention Centres, broadens the already significant power [...]
On 30 May 2011, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, delivered her report on the global state of human rights to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The report deals with a wide range of international human rights issues, including Australia’s policy of mandatory immigration detention and the ongoing issue of [...]
Australia’s human rights record was scrutinised by the UN Human Rights Council through the Universal Periodic Review Process in January 2011. During that review, a significant number of countries asked questions and made recommendations about Australia’s immigration policies and the practice of mandatory detention. Australia gave a preliminary oral response to those questions during the [...]
Over the last decade, prison numbers and spending in Victoria have increased significantly, with little evidence that this is making our community safer or is a sound investment. The Baillieu Government has the opportunity to shift from existing policies that are expensive, inefficient and ineffective and advance an evidence-based reform agenda that breaks the cycle [...]
In December 2010, the UN Committee against Torture issued a ‘List of Issues Prior to Reporting’ for Australia. The purpose of this List is to outline those issues which the Committee would like Australia to address and respond to in its next periodic report to the Committee, due in 2012. The issues on which the [...]
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is drafting a general comment on the right to sexual and reproductive health and has invited organisations to submit written contributions on this issue. On 8 November 2010, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre made a Submission to UN CESCR on the Right to Sexual and Reproductive [...]
On 29 September 2010, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre sent a letter to to the Australian Government calling for the urgent enactment of legislation to provide complementary protection to asylum seekers at risk of persecution, torture or death if deported. Further, on 5 November 2010, the HRLRC, together with a coalition of leading refugee law academics [...]
On 24 August 2010, the Centre provided a Submission to the UN Committee against Torture setting out a number of issues which we consider the Committee should include in its List of Issues for Australia Prior to Reporting in respect of Australia’s compliance with the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or [...]
Castles v Secretary to the Department of Justice [2010] VSC 310 (9 July 2010) On 9 July 2010, the Supreme Court of Victoria found that the plaintiff, Kimberley Castles, is entitled under s 47(1)(f) of the Corrections Act 1986 to undergo IVF treatment. The finding overturns a decision by the Secretary of the Department of [...]
The Human Rights Law Resource Centre has published a Joint Memorandum of Advice from three leading barristers (Debbie Mortimer SC, Chris Horan and Kathleen Foley) in relation to the lawfulness of the suspension of the processing of asylum claims made by Sri Lankan and Afghan nationals. The detailed opinion concludes that the Australian Government’s policy is unlawful [...]
Castles v Secretary of the Department of Justice & Ors [2010] VSC 181 (4 May 2010) The Supreme Court of Victoria has rejected an application by a female prisoner for an injunction restraining the Secretary of the Department of Justice from refusing to grant the permits and approvals necessary to access IVF treatment, contrary to [...]
The excessive use of force by police or inhumane treatment of persons in police custody undermines the integrity of a State’s operations. It also breaches the right to life and the right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (ill-treatment) which are protected by ss 9 and 10 of the Victorian Charter. [...]
The Severe Substance Dependence Treatment Bill 2009 (Vic), currently before Victorian Parliament, proposes to introduce short-term involuntary detention and treatment for persons with severe substance dependence in circumstances where it is necessary as a matter of urgency to save a person’s life or prevent serious damage to a person’s health. The Human Rights Law Resource [...]
The Human Rights Law Resource Centre and Amnesty have made a Joint Submission to the Federal Attorney-General’s National Security Legislation Discussion Paper, which sets out the measures that the Government proposes to take to respond to a number of recent reviews of counter-terror laws. Amnesty and the HRLRC acknowledge that governments have a duty to [...]
On 11 September 2009, eight years after the events of the events of 11 September 2001, the HRLRC made a Submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee regarding the Anti-Terrorism Laws Reform Bill 2009 (Cth). The submission notes that, in those eight years, the Australian Government has introduced 44 pieces of ‘anti terrorism’ legislation. [...]
On 2 August 2009, the Centre made a Submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee on the Migration Amendment (Immigration Reform) Bill 2009. The Bill is intended to ’implement the Government’s New Directions in Detention policy to increase clarity, fairness and consistency in the way the Minister and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship respond [...]
In February 2009, the HRLRC made a Submission in response to a Corrections Regulations Exposure Draft 2009 (Vic) released by Corrections Victoria. The current Corrections Regulations 1998 are due to sunset in May 2009. The Proposed Regulations, together with a Regulatory Impact Statement, were released for public comment on 22 January 2009. The submission addresses aspects [...]
On 16 May 2008, the Committee against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment issued its Concluding Observations on Australia. The Concluding Observations included 27 recommendations concerning Australia’s compliance with its obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The Australian Government has called for [...]
The Centre has made a Submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee in support of the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Laws Bill 2008. The Centre considers that the operation, effectiveness and implications of terrorism laws should be subject to independent review to ensure that there is transparency in the manner in which those laws [...]
On 29 May 2008, the Joint Standing Committee on Migration announced an inquiry into immigration detention in Australia. The Centre’s Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Migration focuses on the need for Australia’s immigration detention regime to ensure the full implementation of Australia’s obligations under international human rights law. The Centre congratulates the Australian Government on its [...]
The Corrections Amendment Bill 2008 (Vic) was introduced to Parliament in July 2008. According to s 1 of the Bill, it ‘provides for the creation of prisoner compensation quarantine funds for the purpose of paying into those funds certain damages awarded to prisoners and to provide for the payments out of those funds of certain [...]
In July 2008, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre, together with the PILCH Homeless Persons’ Legal Clinic and the Victorian Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, made a Submission to the Parliament of Victoria Electoral Matters Committee Inquiry into Voter Participation and Informal Voting. The submission examines and discusses the following issues: the right to [...]
The Human Rights Law Resource Centre strongly supports Australia’s proposed accession to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Optional Protocol). The Optional Protocol establishes a system of regular visits to places of detention by both international and domestic independent expert bodies in order to [...]
The UN Committee Against Torture has issued its Concluding Observations on Australia following a review of Australia’s compliance with the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment at its 40th Session in Geneva in May 2008. The Human Rights Law Resource Centre prepared a major Report on Australia’s Compliance with the Convention against Torture [...]
On 6 February 2008, the Centre’s Director, Phil Lynch, gave evidence as an expert witness in support of a Freedom of Information application for access to a report prepared by the Corrections Inspectorate regarding separation orders and high security and management units in Victorian prisons. The matter is being heard in the Victorian Civil and [...]
In conjunction with Brian Walters SC, Neil McAteer of Counsel and Allens Arthur Robinson, the Centre prepared a Note on the Relevance of International Human Rights to Control Order Conditions in the case of David Hicks. The Note was used by Counsel for Mr Hicks in submissions to the Federal Magistrates’ Court on 18 February [...]
In August 2007, the Brumby Government introduced legislation, the Justice Legislation Amendment Bill 2007, which, among other things, provides for: the interception or censorship of correspondence sent by or to prisoners; and the use of firearms by prison officers when prisoners are attempting to escape. The Bill was accompanied by a Statement of Compatibility under [...]
On 24 August 2007, the Centre made a Submission to the UN Committee against Torture in response to Draft General Comment No 2. The Draft General Comment is of significant importance to the normative development of international human rights law. Although the prohibition against torture is a non-derogable human right and a peremptory norm of [...]
On 5 March 2007, the Centre commenced legal action in the High Court to challenge the constitutionality of legislation which removed the right of all sentenced prisoners to vote in federal elections. The plaintiff in the matter was Vickie Roach, an Aboriginal prsioner at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Deer Park. The defendants were the Commonwealth [...]
On 13 February 2007, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre made a submission to the Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council in response to their Discussion and Options Paper, entitled High-Risk Offenders: Post-Sentence Supervision and Detention. As the Paper identifies, a scheme of post-sentence supervision and detention may be incompatible with or infringe a range of human rights under [...]
Urging or Supporting Unfair Trial of David Hicks may Constitute a War Crime In November 2006, a group of eminent Australian lawyers prepared an Opinion about the continued detention of David Hicks in Guantanamo Bay and his proposed trial by a Military Commission. The Opinion has potentially alarming implications for the Federal Government and its Ministers. [...]
On 3 October 2006, the Centre made a submission regarding the relevance of international human rights to the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s review of Australia’s mutual assistance policy and practice. ‘Mutual assistance’ is the formal process that countries use to request or render assistance in the investigation and prosecution of criminal offences. On 30 March 2006, the [...]
On 19 October 2006, in conjunction with Victoria Legal Aid and Chris Boyce of Counsel, the Centre made submissions to the Victorian Court of Appeal in an appeal against sentence. The submissions pertained to the relevance of international human rights standards to the sentencing of a person with a mental illnedd. MDJ was diagnosed with chronic [...]
On 3 August 2006, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre wrote to various UN Special Rapporteurs in relation to the situation of Mr Amer Haddara, Mr Shane Kent, Mr Izzydeen Attik, Mr Fadal Sayadi, Mr Abdullah Merhi, Mr Ahmed Raad, Mr Ezzit Raad, Mr Hany Taha, Mr Aimen Joud, Mr Shoue Hammoud, Mr Majed Raad, [...]
On 3 July 2006, the HRLRC filed an affidavit and submissions in support of an application for leave to appear as amicus curiae in the Victorian Court of Appeal in case of Joseph Thomas v The Queen. Attached are the following documents: Affidavit of Philip Lynch; Summary Outline of Proposed Substantive Submissions; Outline of Proposed Submissions [...]
This submission examines and discusses the Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill 2006, particularly so far as it provides for offshore detention of those deemed to be designated unauthorised arrivals, and an alternative method of processing such asylum seekers which does not: provide them access to legal assistance; allow for merits review; and allow for [...]
Attached is a submission by the by the Human Rights Law Resource Centre Ltd (‘HRLRC’) to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee Inquiry into the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2005. The HRLRC aims to bring the influence of international human rights norms and principles to bear on [...]
This Communication to the UN Human Rights Committee under the First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was prepared and submitted by the Public Interest Law Clearing House (Vic) on behalf of an asylum seeker alleging violations of the right to freedom from torture pursuant to art 7 and the [...]
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