• NGO Report on Australia’s compliance with the ICCPR
• NGO Report on Australia’s compliance with the ICESCR
• NGO Report on Australia’s compliance with the CERD
• About the NGO reporting process

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

The Human Rights Law Resource Centre, together with the National Association of Community Legal Centres and Kingsford Legal Centre, has submitted the following materials to the Human Rights Committee regarding Australia’s compliance with the ICCPR:

• Freedom, Respect, Equality, Dignity: Action – NGO Submission to the Human Rights Committee (September 2008) [PDF] [Word].  This major report was compiled with the assistance of substantial contributions from over 50 NGOs across Australia. It is endorsed, in whole or in part, by over 200 NGOs.  The Executive Summary of the report has also been translated into French and Spanish.
• Freedom, Respect, Equality, Dignity: Action – Addendum to NGO Submission to the Human Rights Committee (March 2009) [PDF] [Word].  This addendum updates the Committee on major human rights developments between September 2008 and March 2009.

The reports aim to provide a comprehensive overview of, and make targeted recommendations regarding, the realisation of civil and political human rights in Australia, including:

• the lack of constitutional or legislative recognition and protection of civil and political rights;
• groups within society that remain vulnerable to discrimination, such as Indigenous peoples, women and children, people with disability, asylum seekers and gay and lesbian couples;
• Australia’s counter terrorism laws and measures;
• Australia’s immigration law, policy and practice; and
• the treatment of people in detention, including prisoners and people in involuntary psychiatric detention.

The Human Rights Committee’s Concluding Observations on Australia were released on 3 April 2009.  Click here for further information.

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights will review Australia’s compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Geneva on 5 and 6 May 2009. 

On 4 May 2009, a non-government delegation, comprising representatives from the Human Rights Law Resource Centre, the National Association of Community Legal Centres and Kingsford Legal Centre, will brief the Committee on the state of  human rights in Australia and measures to improve performance.  The Committee will release its report on Australia on or around 22 May 2009.

The Human Rights Law Resource Centre, together with the National Association of Community Legal Centres and Kingsford Legal Centre, has submitted the following materials to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights regarding Australia:

• Freedom, Respect, Equality, Dignity: Action – NGO Submission to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (April 2008)  [PDF] [Word].  This major report was compiled with the assistance of substantial contributions from over 30 NGOs across Australia.  It is endorsed, in whole or in part, by over 100 NGOs.  The Executive Summary of the report has also been translated into French and Spanish.  This report was intended to assist the Committee to prepare a List of Issues for Australia during the Pre-Sessional Working Group meeting from 19 to 23 May 2008.   It is also intended to ensure that the Committee is equipped to engage in a rigorous and constructive dialogue with Australia when it is reviewed by the Committee in 2009.
• Freedom, Respect, Equality, Dignity: Action – Addendum to NGO Submission to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (April 2009)  [PDF] [Word].  This addendum updates the Committee on major human rights developments between April 2008 and April 2009.
• Executive Summary of NGO Reports (April 2009) [PDF] [Word].  The Executive Summary was prepared as the primary working document for the Committee members and the Secretariat.  The Executive Summary:
  • provides a brief introduction and comments on the context of the review by the Committee, including significant positive developments in the promotion and protection of Covenant rights in Australia;
  • addresses the List of Issues developed by the Committee;
  • outlines our major additional concerns that are not raised in the List of Issues; and
  • includes an updated list of Proposed Recommendations that we consider would be important to include in the Committee’s Concluding Observations on Australia.

Together, these Reports provide a comprehensive and constructive analysis of the state of ESC rights in Australia and make a range of targeted recommendations to address disadvantage and poverty.  The Reports document a number of areas in which Australia is falling short of its obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The Reports focus on areas that have been the subject of extensive NGO activity and research in Australia.  Subjects detailed in the Reports include:

• the lack of legal recognition and protection of economic, social and cultural rights;
• the nature and extent of poverty in Australia and the need for a comprehensive national poverty reduction strategy;
• Indigenous self-determination and disadvantage;
• the current housing crisis and the significant problem of homelessness;
• groups within society that remain vulnerable to discrimination, such as Indigenous peoples, women and children, people with disability, asylum seekers and gay and lesbian couples;
• violence against women;
• the inadequacy of income and social security supports;
• the regression of workers’ rights;
• the crisis in mental health in Australia and the inadequacy of mental health care;
• the chronic under funding of both public health care and education; and
• the deleterious impacts of Australia’s immigration law and policy on families and children.

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights released its Concluding Observations on Australia on 25 May 2009.  Click here for further information.

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

Australia is scheduled to be reviewed by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in relation to its compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in Geneva in August 2010. 

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.

About the NGO reporting process

All of the United Nations human rights treaty monitoring and reporting bodies encourage non-governmental organisations to submit written and oral information regarding Australia’s compliance with international human rights obligations to supplement or ’shadow’ the Australian Government’s report.  Increasingly, this information is relied upon by the treaty monitoring bodies to formulate their observations and make recommendations about action to implement human rights and remedy violations.  Although these recommendations are not enforceable under Australian domestic law, they can be politically and publicly persuasive and perform a significant educative function.

For further information regarding the UN treaty body reporting process, including the role of non-government organisations, click here.