The December 2008 edition of the Human Rights Law Resource Centre Bulletin includes:
- Opinion pieces by John von Doussa QC (former President of the Australian Human Rights Commission) and Simon Rice (Director of Law Reform and Social Justice at the ANU College of Law) on the proposed national human rights consultation
- News about Australia’s ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the election of Prof Ron McCallum to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a new General Comment by the UN Human Rights Committee on the legal nature and status of its decisions, and details of an award to Allens Arthur Robinson for its pro bono contribution to human rights
- Updates on the Victorian Charter of Rights, including an analysis of recent Statements of Compatibility
- Updates on other Charters of Rights, including information about the campaign for a national human rights consultation and Charter, a new report which demonstrates the ways in which the UK Human Rights Act protects vulnerable people and improves lives, and developments relating to a Tasmanian Charter of Rights
- Victorian Charter case notes, including in relation to the application of the interpretative principle in a taxi licensing case
[Note: All Victorian case notes published in the Bulletin are also published on the Centre's searchable database within 5 days of publication of the Bulletin] - Comparative law case notes on significant recent human rights decisions from the UK (protection of children and vulnerability to ill-treatment; right to a fair hearing and prosecutorial independence; right to a fair hearing and anonymity of defendants; right to private life and family unity) and Canada (costs in public interest and pro bono litigation)
[Note: All comparative case notes published in the Bulletin are also published on the Centre's searchable database within 5 days of publication of the Bulletin] - Information about the Centre’s policy work, including the development of a 15 year Human Rights Agenda for the 75th anniversary of the UDHR, and a submission calling on Australia to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- Updates on the Centre’s casework and litigation, including in relation to the definition of ‘public authority’ under the Charter and a test case regarding the involuntary treatment of persons with mental illness
- Details of forthcoming human rights seminars and events, including major HRLRC seminars with Lord Bingham on 9 December 2008 and with Prof Steven Greer on 12 December
- Information about useful human rights resources, including a book review of Human Rights Overboard by Susan Harris Rimmer (President of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights)
- Human rights law jobs, including a Policy Officer role with the Federation of Community Legal Centres (Vic)
- Updates on major international human rights developments from our foreign correspondent in Geneva, Claire Mahon (Coordinator of the Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights)
- ‘If I were Attorney-General’ by Simone Cusack (Public Interest Lawyer at the Public Interest Law Clearing House)
