In a landmark decision, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has held that Australia violated the human rights of a permanent resident, and breached its international legal obligations, by cancelling his visa and deporting him to Sweden.
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 MoreAustralia faced a hard sell to defend its human rights record when it appeared before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 8 June 2011. Australia’s delegation delivered its formal response to 145 recommendations made as part of the UN’s Universal Periodic Review process, which reviews the human rights records of all 192 United Nations Member States.
Read MoreThe Australian Government has today formally responded to recommendations made by the UN’s Human Rights Council in February this year, claiming it will accept, at least in part, 90 percent of the recommendations arising from the Universal Periodic Review process. Whilst welcoming the majority of the Government’s response, the Human Rights Law Centre’s Director of International Human Rights Advocacy, Ben Schokman, said the ten percent the Government has rejected contain some of the most significant recommendations.
Read MoreOn 30 May 2011, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, delivered her report on the global state of human rights to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The report deals with a wide range of international human rights issues, including Australia’s policy of mandatory immigration detention and the ongoing issue of Indigenous disadvantage and disempowerment. T
Read Moreon the operation of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities, entitled Talking Rights, was tabled in Parliament. Each year, the Commission is required to submit a report to parliament which examines the operation of the Charter, including its interactions with other laws, and any declarations of inconsistent interpretation and override declarations.
Read MoreAustralia’s human rights record was scrutinised by the UN Human Rights Council through the Universal Periodic Review Process in January 2011. During that review, a significant number of countries asked questions and made recommendations about Australia’s immigration policies and the practice of mandatory detention.
Read MoreLast night’s fatal police shooting in St Kilda exposes the need for the independent investigation of police shootings and highlights the pitfalls of a media-unit lead response, say legal and human rights groups. “This is an extremely serious case,” said Mr de Kretser, Executive Officer of the Victorian Federation of Community Legal Centres.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) has unveiled a new website, www.equalitylaw.org.au, to encourage and facilitate discussions about the Australian Government’s consolidation process of federal anti-discrimination laws. There are a number of federal anti-discrimination laws in Australia which aim to tackle discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability and age. In April 2010, the Australian Government committed to examining gaps in the existing anti-discrimination laws and consolidating them into a single Equality Act.
Read MoreThe review of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities announced by the Attorney-General, the Hon Robert Clark, today is a significant opportunity to improve the promotion and protection of human rights in Victoria says a leading human rights centre.
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A new approach is needed for how Victoria Police handle confrontation with young people in crisis and investigations into serious police violence need to be independently conducted, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre said.
Read MoreLoopholes in Australia’s extradition procedures need to be closed to prevent exposing people to human rights violations, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre has recommended. The Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department has concluded it consultation process for an exposure draft to update the Extradition Act and Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act.
Read MoreThe HRLRC recently made submissions on the correct approach to the application of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) in the High Court of Australia. The appeal from the decision of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria in R v Momcilovic (2010) 265 ALR 751, was heard in Canberra on 8–10 February 2011.
Read MoreThe United Nation’s Independent Expert on the Effects of Foreign Debt and other Related International Financial Obligations on Human Rights, Dr Cephas Lumina, will visit Australia this week to discuss efforts to prevent profiteering by vulture funds. Vulture funds are operated by private investment firms which purchase foreign debt of developing countries at a heavily discounted price and then seek to recover the full amount of debt with significant interest and spurious fees through legal proceedings based in countries such as the US, UK and Australia.
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