On 1 July 2009, the Centre made a submission to the Standing Committee on Procedure Inquiry into the effectiveness of House Committees, entitled Human Rights and Parliamentary Scrutiny. 

The submission focuses on the second and fourth of the Committee’s Terms of Reference namely, ‘the type of work being undertaken by committees’ and ‘the powers and operations of committees’.  The HRLRC considers that parliamentary committees should play a more significant role in the promotion and protection of human rights in Australia. 

In addition to considering Australia’s international human rights obligations in this regard, the submission also considers the operation and effectiveness of parliamentary human rights scrutiny mechanisms in other jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.  

The submission concludes that Parliament should establish a Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights to lead parliamentary engagement with and understanding of human rights issues, including by:

• scrutinising all Bills and subordinate legislation for compatibility with protected rights;
• conducting thematic inquiries into human rights issues;
• monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the Concluding Observations and Views of UN treaty bodies and the recommendations of the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council; and
• monitoring and assisting in government responses to Declarations of Incompatibility (under any Australian Human Rights Act) and other court and tribunal decisions and judgments.

Found in Domestic Submissions, Focus Areas - Other, International Human Rights Mechanisms, Submissions - Charter of Rights, Submissions - International Human Rights Mechanisms