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Prisoners
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 Australian Government has a legal obligation to implement key human rights reforms, according to a new submission from the Human Rights Law Centre [submission and annexure]. The submission to the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department considers each of 145 recommendations made to Australia by the international community during Australia’s Universal Periodic Review before the UN Human [...]
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 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 [...]
Australia is to be reviewed by the UN Human Rights Council through the Universal Periodic Review process in January 2011. 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 3 June 2010, the UN Special Rapportuer on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health, Anand Grover, released his final report following a mission to Australia in November and December 2009. The report focuses on the standard of living and quality of health care and health services for Aboriginal and Torres [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
The Victorian Department of Justice, in conjunction with the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General, recently announced that it was working on a national model Bill for a spent convictions scheme and invited the HRLRC to make a submission in relation to a draft Bill. The purpose of a spent convictions scheme is broadly to limit the [...]
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 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 [...]
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 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 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 [...]
Beth Midgley and Cecilia Riebl, ‘The Right to Humane Treatment in Detention: How do Victorian Prisons Rate?’, Paper to PILCH Law Week Seminar on 17 May 2007, Melbourne.
The Australian Government should urgently reconsider key aspects of its counter-terrorism laws to bring them into conformity with international human rights standards, a UN report on human rights and counter-terrorism in Australia which was tabled before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 26 March 2007 has found. The Centre has prepared a Summary [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
This memorandum examines: the nature of the right to be free from arbitrary detention under article 9(1) of the ICCPR; and the extent to which freedom from arbitrary detention is a right protected by customary international law.
This memorandum considers some of the international human rights law and jurisprudence relevant to the rights, freedoms, conditions and treatment of people in detention. This memorandum considers some of the international human rights mechanisms available to seek remedies for violations of prisoners’ rights, including the UN Human Rights Committee and various of the UN Special [...]
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 [...]
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