Evidence of mass internments, widespread forced labour and other atrocities against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang provide an urgent case for action by the Australian Government to ensure businesses are not complicit in serious human rights abuses, the Human Rights Law Centre will tell a Senate inquiry today.
Read MoreCredible evidence of mass internments, forced labour and other atrocities against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang provide an urgent case for action by the Australian Government to ensure businesses are not profiting from these abuses, the Human Rights Law Centre said this week in a report to a parliamentary committee.
Read MoreCivil society groups have firmly denounced the military coup in Myanmar which has suspended civilian government and effectively returned full power to the military.
Read MoreAustralia’s human rights performance was in the spotlight tonight as the Australian Government appeared before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for its major human rights review that happens every four to five years.
Australia’s human rights performance will be in the spotlight tonight as the Australian Government appears before the Human Rights Council in Geneva for its major human rights review that happens every four to five years.
The Australian Government has used its voice at the UN Human Rights Council to raise concerns of serious human rights abuses committed by Saudi authorities.
Read MoreThe decision from Australia’s Foreign Minister, Marise Payne, to impose targeted financial sanctions and travel bans against five Myanmar military officers responsible for human rights violations committed by units under their command has been welcomed by the Australian Council for International Development and the Human Rights Law Centre.
Read MoreThe Trump administration has announced that it will quit the UN Human Rights Council, effective immediately. Daniel Webb, Director of Legal Advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, who is in Geneva for the current session of the Human Rights Council, said the move was widely expected by advocates and diplomats and is the latest step in the United States’ retreat from human rights and multilateralism.
Read More"Time and time again we see our Government getting all mealy-mouthed about global humanitarian emergencies when the country in question has some connection with its own refugee policies" - Our Daniel Webb reports from last night's important session of the UN Human Rights Council focusing on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Myanmar.
Read MoreIn a statement to the United Nations, Human Rights Law Centre has called on the Turnbull Government to hold companies to account for human rights violations overseas.
Read MoreOvernight the Australian Government delivered a major 'incoming members pledge' to the UN Human Rights Council, promising to approach it’s three year term on the Council "in a spirit of self-reflection with a view to improving our own human rights situation" and to "make progress in the promotion, protection and realisation of human rights", "including through implementation of [UN] recommendations and resolutions."
Read MoreHot on the heels of its appointment to the UN Human Rights Council, the Australian Government faced a grilling from UN experts about its own human rights performance. Our lawyers were in Geneva to help brief the Committee and present a report endorsed by 56 Australian organisations highlighting how Australia was failing to meet the standards it promised to uphold.
Read More“This is the most significant UN position Australia has sought since the Security Council. Relatively speaking Australia is likely to be a positive force for reform on the Council, but if it wants to have the credibility required to be a true human rights leader it can't continue to blatantly breach international law itself. There's no doubt that it's cruel treatment of refugees will hamstring Australia's efforts on Council," said Emily Howie.
Read MoreIn a submission filed with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade consultation on a new Foreign Policy White Paper, the Human Rights Law Centre has urged Australia to raise the bar on its foreign policy and aim to be a principled and consistent leader in human rights and a staunch defender of international law.
Read MorePrime Minister Malcolm Turnbull should make the most of his seemingly close relationship with Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo to push for unfettered media access and human rights monitoring in Papua.
Read MoreAustralia is a multicultural success story and the contribution of refugees are a key part of that success. Australia has successfully accepted over 7 million migrants since 1945 including around 800,000 refugees and humanitarian entrants.
Read MoreA joint parliamentary committee has today urged the Australian Government to do more to abolish the death penalty worldwide including prohibiting the Australian Federal Police from sharing information about drug crimes that could lead to imposition of the death penalty.
Read MoreThe Australian Government’s response overnight at the UN in Geneva to a major review of its human rights record has failed to address the serious concerns raised by the international community.
Read MoreAs Australia undermines international efforts to address Burma’s significant human rights challenges, it also misses an opportunity to establish its credentials as a global human rights leader, the Human Rights Law Centre has warned today.
Read MoreThe HRLC’s Director of Advocacy and Research, Emily Howie, said that the Australia needs to improve its human rights record and that the HRLC has advocated for the establishment of an Australian human rights ambassador to promote and coordinate human rights within and across foreign policy since 2009.
Read MoreAustralia must ensure that its opposition to the death penalty is consistently reflected across all its laws, policies and practices, the Human Rights Law Centre has told the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade’s Human Rights Sub-Committee. The Sub-Committee is currently inquiring into Australia’s advocacy for abolition of the death penalty.
Read MoreAustralia’s human rights performance will face intense scrutiny next week as the Government appears before the Human Rights Council in Geneva for its major four yearly human rights review. At the "Universal Periodic Review" (UPR) other countries will have the opportunity to question Australia about its human rights record and make a series of recommendations for improvement.
Read MoreAs the UN celebrates it's 70th birthday, the HRLC's Anna Brown looks at Australia’s involvement in the success and also the need to confront the current weakness of our leadership on human rights.
Read MoreJoin us for a panel discussion in Melbourne about Australia's foreign policy ambitions and failures with Tim Costello, Andrew Hudson and Emily Howie.
Read MoreIn the lead up to Australia’s review by the UN Human Rights Council, the HRLC and other NGOs along with the Australian Human Rights Commission visited Geneva to brief UN member states on the human rights situation in Australia and key issues that should be considered as part of the review.
Read MoreThe HRLC has joined with Human Rights Watch to produce a report detailing how Australia can “lift its game” on human rights at home and abroad in order to strengthen its bid for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Read MoreIntense secrecy and speculation has shrouded the allegations that the Australian Government paid the crew of an asylum seeker boat headed for New Zealand to return to Indonesia. Here’s our take on what’s happened and what it means for our asylum seeker policy.
Read MoreA group of leading Australian and international human rights organisations are calling for an overhaul to the way the Australian government campaigns to end the death penalty, today launching a new strategy document: ‘Australian Government and the Death Penalty: A Way Forward’.
Read MoreThe announcement from Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo that Indonesia will lift its decades-long ban on journalists travelling to its troubled Papuan provinces is a welcome step in the right direction.
Read MoreThe Australian Government has secretly returned 46 asylum seekers to Vietnam without any transparency or due process. Late on Friday 17 April, when news first broke that the asylum seekers were in Australian custody somewhere on the high seas, the Human Rights Law Centre sent a an urgent communication to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Read MoreAustralia’s steadily deteriorating human rights performance has been highlighted in a major report compiled by nearly 200 organisations around Australia. It will be presented to the United Nation’s peak human rights body in the lead up to a major review of Australia that takes place every four years.
Read MoreThe Government of Nauru should take urgent steps to respect and protect journalists, strengthen judicial independence and enact specific legislation protecting human rights defenders, the International Service for Human Rights and the Human Rights Law Centre said in a joint briefing paper on Nauru published today.
Read MoreIf Australia wants to pursue its own military drone program, far greater levels of transparency and rigorous safeguards are absolutely essential, the Human Rights Law Centre will tell the Senate's Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee during its inquiry into Australia's potential purchase of its own drones.
Read MoreThe election of a new Indonesian President presents the Australian Government with an opportunity to review its relationship with the Indonesian military.
Read MoreAustralia’s new approach to development assistance focuses on private sector development and pays insufficient attention to the human rights goals and obligations that should be central to our aid program.
Read MoreThe Australian Government should introduce laws that would minimise the risk of Australian policing or military assistance supporting human rights violators.
Read MoreAustralia has one last opportunity this week to publicly support a US-led initiative at the United Nations to end impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the final phases of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009.
Read MoreA new report has found that Australia’s cooperation with Sri Lanka to prevent would-be-refugees from seeking protection is riddled with human rights risks and should be stopped immediately.
Read MoreAustralian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been asked to revoke his statement, made during his recent visit to Sri Lanka for the Commonwealth summit, that suggested that the use of torture can be justified in “difficult circumstances”.
Read MoreIf we don't stand against war crimes and crimes against humanity resulting in the death of 40,000 people, what do we stand for? asks the HRLC's Emily Howie
Read MoreAustralia must publicly acknowledge and condemn the human rights and rule of law crisis in Sri Lanka particularly given the escalation of international condemnation of Sri Lanka’s human rights record ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) in Colombo.
Read MoreUsing aid to offset asylum seeker costs is regarded by many people as an abuse – but that is not the worst of it writes Robin Davies, the Associate Director of the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University.
Read MoreAustralia should come clean about its role in the controversial American armed drone program after two United Nations human rights experts called for an end to the secrecy shrouding the US program.
Read MoreWhen Australia – one of the ICC’s strongest supporters – was elected to the Security Council for 2013 and 2014, Amnesty International and other supporters of international justice hoped that it would work to challenge many aspects of the Security Council’s approach writes Amnesty International's Legal Adviser, Jonathan O'Donohue.
Read MoreSeptember 2013: The Human Rights Law Centre's Director of Communications, Tom Clarke, speaks to ABC News24's Weekend Breakfast show about new Prime Minister Tony Abbott's first trip to Indonesia and the pressing need to raise concerns about the human rights situation in West Papua.
Read MorePrime Minister Tony Abbott has been urged to use his first visit to Indonesia tomorrow to cast aside the wilful blindness previous Australian Governments have had when it comes to the serious human rights violations occurring a stone's throw away in Indonesia's Papua provinces.
Read MoreThe head of a UN-appointed inquiry into human rights in North Korea reported that testimony heard so far by his panel pointed to widespread and serious violations in every area it had been asked to investigate. “What we have seen and heard so far – the specificity, detail and shocking character of the personal testimony – appears without doubt to demand follow-up action by the world community, and accountability on the part of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Michael Kirby, chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the DPRK, said in an oral update to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.
Read MoreIn a joint letter, the Human Rights Law Centre and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have asked the UN Special Rapporteur on Counter Terrorism to expand a current investigation into the civilian impact of US drone strikes so it also examines Australia's role in locating targets through operations at the joint Aus/US Pine Gap military base.
Read MoreAustralia recently announced its intention to seek election to the UN Human Rights Council in 2018. The Council is the UN’s peak human rights body. It is responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe, for addressing situations of human rights violations and making recommendations on them. The Council comprises 47 UN Member States, which are elected by the UN General Assembly.
Read MoreAustralia’s decision to forcibly return 31 Sri Lankan nationals to Colombo last night was based on a flawed process that fails to ensure Australia is not breaching its international human rights obligations by returning genuine refugees.
Read MoreAustralia’s opposition to the death penalty should extend beyond its borders, the Human Rights Law Centre has said ahead of Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s visit to Papua New Guinea tomorrow.
Read MoreWith the Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, scheduled to visit Indonesia tomorrow, the Human Rights Law Centre has called for a forthright discussion about human rights abuses in the Indonesian province of Papua.
HRLC spokesperson, Tom Clarke, said Australia is well positioned to play a meaningful and constructive role in helping to address the continuing human rights crisis in Papua.
Read MoreIn November 2013, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is due to be held in Sri Lanka. Ignoring international calls for the venue to be changed, including from the Canadian Government, Australia has indicated it will attend the meeting.
Read MoreAusAID has observed International Human Rights Day by announcing the names and details of projects that will receive funding under its 2012 Human Rights Grant Scheme.
Read MoreAustralia’s Foreign Minister should seek assurances that Australia’s cooperation with Sri Lanka to prevent people smuggling is not exposing asylum seekers to torture, arbitrary detention, systemic discrimination and other gross human rights violations, the Human Rights Law Centre said today.
Read MoreCommenting from Indonesia, Commonwealth Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, has said Australia's recognition of Indonesia's sovereignty over Papua would not stop the Government from registering concern about human rights violations.
Read MoreOn 5 September 2012, the Australian Government signed a Defence Cooperation Agreement with Indonesia. The agreement raises potentially significant human rights issues. The HRLC has been advised by the Defence Minister’s office that the agreement is confidential and not available publicly.
Read MoreAmnesty International has called on Indonesian authorities to ensure a prompt, independent and impartial investigation into reports of unnecessary and excessive use of force including the use of firearms by security forces in Wamena, Papua province.
Read MoreAmnesty International has released its annual report documenting the state of human rights. The state of the world’s human rights, was released this month and consists of five regional overviews and a country-by-country survey of 155 individual countries and territories.
Read MoreAustralia’s immigration minister should raise concerns with Sri Lankan officials about alleged arbitrary arrest and torture of people who were refused asylum and sent back to Sri Lanka when he visits this week, the Human Rights Law Centre and Human Rights Watch said today. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka from 2 to 4 May 2012, to discuss migration issues, including preventing people smuggling from Sri Lanka to Australia.
Read MoreThe Australian Government has consistently maintained that Australian military personnel had no involvement in the detention of captives in Iraq. However, documents obtained by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) make it clear that Australia was deeply entangled in the capture and detention of Iraqis.
Read MoreThe report of Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Committee, which was established to investigate events during February 2002 to May 2009, was released to the public on 16 December 2011. The report has garnered criticism from international human rights bodies and the Australian government for failing to deal comprehensively with human rights abuses. Human Rights Watch said the report “disregards the worst abuses by government forces, rehashes longstanding recommendations, and fails to advance accountability for victims of Sri Lanka’s civil armed conflict”.
Read MoreThe Australian Government’s silence on human rights abuses in the region has once again been put in the spotlight, with the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) and International Lawyers for West Papua (ILWP) urging the Foreign Minister to speak up in defence of basic rights such as freedom of expression and assembly.
Read MoreThe Australian Government should take a leadership role in promoting and protecting human rights in the troubled Indonesian province of West Papua say two leading human rights organizations in a Joint Letter to the Foreign Minister, the Hon Kevin Rudd MP.
Read MoreWhen Mohamad Hassan Sultan and four other boys were innocently watching rubble being removed from a house destroyed in a cluster bomb strike, a truck bumped a tree, dislodging a cluster bomb. It detonated by Mohamad’s feet and blew up into him. He was killed and all his friends were injured. His shoes were blown off with parts of his feet and ankles still in them.
Read MoreOn 20 October 2011, a coalition of leading human rights NGOs, including the Human Rights Law Centre, Human Rights Watch and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, sent an Open Letter to the Commonwealth Heads of Government regarding the need to take urgent action on human rights in Sri Lanka at the forthcoming meeting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government in Perth. The letter was written as further evidence emerges of serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law against Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka's military, including systemic rape, murder and the targeting of hospitals and health care clinics.
Read MoreAustralian law must be strengthened to prevent Australian officials from directly or indirectly exposing people to serious human rights violations, including torture and the death penalty.
Read MoreA parliamentary committee has recommended that the United Kingdom take a more principled, persistent and consistent approach to human rights in foreign policy. The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, in their report on the Foreign Office's human rights work, welcomes the Government’s commitment to “the promotion of human rights overseas as one of its central foreign policy objectives”, but recommends that the UK “take a more robust and significantly more consistent position on human rights violations”.
Read MoreOn 6 July 2011, the Foreign Minister announced a comprehensive new strategy for Australia’s aid and development program.
Read MoreThe UK Equality and Human Rights Commission has just released a major research report on ‘Developing a Bill of Rights for the UK’. The report aims to ‘identify and explore best practice processes for developing a new Bill of Rights for the UK’. The report analyses evidence from related domestic and international experiences (including the ACT, Victoria and Australia) and identifies key principles to underpin the development of a Bill of Rights, regardless of which political party is in power.
Read MoreIn the course of the recent periodic review of Australia by the UN Human Rights Committee, one of the independent experts called on Australia to grasp its opportunity – and fulfil its obligation – to become a ‘AAA’ human rights state. This paper, entitled 'Australia, Human Rights and Foreign Policy' (2009) 34(4) Alternative Law Journal 218, responds to three issues raised by that call.
Read More
