On the international stage, Australia has a proud bipartisan history in the development of human rights laws and institutions.  At home, the recent National Human Rights Consultation demonstrated that human rights matter deeply to Australians.  Human rights principles resonate with Australian democratic values, including the rule of law and our sense of a fair go. 

The Consultation also demonstrated, however, that our framework of laws and institutions does not provide comprehensive protection of rights, particularly for vulnerable or disadvantaged groups.  The Consultation disclosed a strong majority view that ‘we could do better in guaranteeing fairness for all within Australia and in protecting the dignity of people who miss out’.

On 21 July 2010, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre released Human Rights 2010 – 10 Policies for a Fairer Australia.   Human Rights 2010 briefly sets out ten policies to which the next Federal Government should commit for a fairer Australia.  Together, the policies would promote human dignity, address disadvantage, enhance good government, and strengthen accountability. 

A coalition of 68 NGOs - coordinated by the Human Rights Law Resource Centre, Kingsford Legal Centre and the National Association of Community Legal Centres - has submitted a 5 page Report to the UN Human Rights Council on Australia, setting out key human rights issues and concrete recommendations, including in relation to:

• the legal recognition and protection of human rights
• Australia’s cooperation with international human rights mechanisms
• equality and non-discrimination
• women’s rights
• children’s rights
• the rights of people with disability
• GLBTI rights
• Indigenous rights, including in respect of the Northern Territory Intervention, the criminal justice system, native title, the Stolen Generations, Stolen Wages, and access to adequate health care, housing and education
• the rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers
• prisoners’ rights and conditions of detention
• police use of force and oversight and complaint mechanisms
• the administration of justice
• homelessness
• mental health care
• human rights and counter-terrorism
• business and human rights
• international assistance and Australian foreign policy

The report was submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 12 July 2010.

Further information on Australia’s review under the UPR process is available at www.hrlrc.org.au/content/topics/international-human-rights-mechanisms/universal-periodic-review-of-australia-in-february-2011/.

The submisssion of the Australian Human Rights Commission for the UPR is at http://www.humanrights.gov.au/upr/index.html.

The Australian Government report for the UPR is at www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/Humanrightsandanti-discrimination_InternationalHumanRights_UniversalPeriodicReview. 

In July 2010, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre, together with the National Association of Community Legal Centres, submitted a major NGO submission on Australia to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. 

The report, which was endorsed by a coalition of over 100 NGOs, details that racial and religious minority groups in Australia continue to experience racism in their daily lives and to suffer unequal human rights treatment and outcomes.  There remain serious concerns about the racially discriminatory character and impact of a range of Australian laws, policies and practices.  Many of the advances in human rights protection since the election of the Labor Government in 2007 have been symbolic in nature; structural changes necessary to turn commitments into practice still need to be made.

The NGO report documents areas in which Australia is falling short of fulfilling its obligations under CERD and focuses on areas that have been the subject of extensive NGO activity and research in Australia.

Subjects detailed in the report include:

• the lack of sufficient legal protection from racial discrimination in Australian law, policy and practice, including the ineffectiveness and, at times, unavailability of remedies for violations;
• the ongoing discriminatory outcomes experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the enjoyment of many civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights;
• the impact of the Northern Territory Intervention on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
• the adverse impact of laws, policies and practices on asylum seekers, refugees and other non-citizens;
• the various forms of discrimination faced by migrant communities in Australia;
• the impact of Australia’s counter-terrorism laws on Somali, Kurd and Muslim communities in Australia; and
• the need for better implementation of Concluding Observations of human rights treaty monitoring bodies and a worrying trend in Australia’s response to views of those bodies.

The report contains concrete recommendations for Australian authorities, which would bring Australia more fully into compliance with its obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; an Australia in which all persons can live with freedom, respect, equality and dignity.

On 6 July 2010, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre made a Follow-Up Submission on Implementation of the Human Rights Committee’s Concluding Observations on Australia.  The submission updates the Committee as to:

• the four Concluding Observations about which the Committee requested relevant information on implementation from Australia within one year (namely, counter-terrorism law and policy, the Northern Territory Emergency Response, violence against women and mandatory immigration detention); and
• the outcomes of the National Human Rights Consultation.

Further background information on each of these issues is contained in the comprehensive NGO Report, Addendum and fact sheets provided to the Committee in 2009, available at http://www.hrlrc.org.au/content/topics/civil-and-political-rights/un-human-rights-committee-review-of-australia-march-2009/.

The Centre’s submission outlines practical steps and measures, including legislative, administrative and financial measures, for the Australian Government to improve the promotion and protection of social and economic rights, including in relation to:

• the legal protection of rights;
• the mandate, functions and powers of the Australian Human Rights Commission;
• anti-discrimination legislation;
• the Northern Territory Intervention;
• Indigenous self-determination and political participation;
• gender equality;
• homelessness;
• Indigenous health, education and language and land rights;
• mandatory immigration detention; and
• human rights education in Australia. 

Proposed legislation has recently been introduced to Parliament that seeks to reinstate the operation of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, but expand income management to apply across the whole of Australia.   Click here for further information about the proposed legislation.

The Centre has made a submission to the Inquiry that considers the human rights principles and standards that are most relevant to the Northern Territory Intervention and the proposed amendments.  In particular, the submission states that any measures imposed as part of the Northern Territory Intervention must:

• respect the fundamental right to equality and non-discrimination;
• involve the genuine participation of affected Aboriginal communities, respect the right of self-determination, and involve the free, prior and informed consent of those communities; and
• recognise that the rights of Aboriginal communities, women and children are closely linked and that women and children must be protected in a way that is racially non‑discriminatory.

The Centre is extremely concerned that:

• while the reinstatement of the Racial Discrimination Act is welcomed, its reinstatement will not take effect until 31 December 2010;
• there is a clear lack of evidence to demonstrably justify the effectiveness, and thus the necessity, of many of the Northern Territory Intervention measures, particularly income quarantining;
• the Federal Government’s consultations with affected communities have been manifestly inadequate and cannot be used to justify the continuation, and indeed the expansion, of the Northern Territory Intervention measures; and
• there has been a complete absence of any meaningful involvement by affected Aboriginal communities in both the formulation and the amendment of the Northern Territory Intervention measures. 

As a result, the HRLRC considers that the Government’s Bills in their current form will:

• continue to breach a number of Australia’s international human rights obligations;
• not be effective in addressing Aboriginal disadvantage;
• continue to undermine the relationship between Australian governments and Aboriginal Australians; and
• arbitrarily impact on the human rights of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups within our society, with the effect that they will become further isolated and excluded. 

Click here for further details about the Senate Committee’s inquiry. 

The letter explains that the reinstatement of the Racial Discrimination Act would ensure that laws, policies and practices designed to “Close the Gap” will be effective and beneficial for Indigenous peoples, and would demonstrate and confirm the Rudd Government’s commitment to the protection and promotion of human rights.

Click here for a copy of the HRLRC’s media release.

In August this year, the Minister wrote to Alice Springs town camp residents giving notice of her proposal to compulsorily acquire their land.  For over 12 months the Minister has been seeking to acquire 40-year subleases over the town camps.  When these negotiations broke down, the Minister threatened the exercise of her compulsory acquisition power.  Under the Minister’s power, if the Commonwealth acquires the land of the town camps then all existing rights over the land held by Aboriginal people will end.  

In its submission, the HRLRC strongly urges the Minister not to exercise her extraordinary power to compulsorily acquire the Alice Springs town camps because to do so would:

1. be in breach of a number of Australia’s international obligations to respect and promote the human rights of Aboriginal Australians;
2. not be effective in achieving the Federal Government’s objective of improving the lives of the residents of the Alice Springs town camps;
3. seriously damage and undermine the relationship between the Federal Government and Aboriginal Australians; and
4. be likely to severely damage Australia’s international reputation.

Click here for a copy of the HRLRC’s media release.