This report to the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (the CERD Committee) examines Australia’s compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

This report to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee (the Committee) examines Australia’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

In 2013 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that no person seeking asylum by boat would ever be resettled in Australia. Four years on, this joint report from the Human Rights Law Centre and GetUp! calls for the end of offshore processing and the immediate evacuation of the men, women and children held in Australia’s detention camps on Manus Island, and in PNG, and the Republic of Nauru.

Australian governments must act now to safeguard and encourage vibrant debate on matters of public interest. Defending Democracy by the Human Rights Law Centre maps the worrying trend of Australian governments seeking to restrict the free speech of not-for-profit organisations, through practices such as gag clauses in funding agreements and threats to hamstring advocacy groups’ ability to fundraise.

The Human Rights Law Centre and Change the Record collaborated on this report to address the over-imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.The imprisonment rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women has skyrocketed 148 per cent since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women make up around 34 per cent of the female prison population but only 2 per cent of the adult female population.Read the report here [PDF]

The Human Rights Law Centre report, Safeguarding Democracy, documents the unmistakable trend of governments at national and state level steadily chipping away at free speech, a free press, peaceful assembly, open government and the rule of law - some of the foundations of our democracy.

The Human Rights Law Centre, along with a coalition of NGOs scrutinised Australia's human rights record in a report against the UN's Committee Against Torture.

This briefing paper is intended to provide background on the Guiding Principles and outline the case for the development of an Australian NAP. It draws on the experience of other states and on the significant work of UN bodies, civil society organisations and National Human Rights Institutions that are working to promote coherent and effective practice in the implementation of the Guiding Principles.

The Human Rights Law Centre has produced a report on the need for legislation to erase the criminal records of homosexual men who were convicted for having consensual sex in the past when it was illegal.

A new report by the HRLC's Rachel Ball considers the benefits and challenges of storytelling in human rights and social justice advocacy. The report, ‘When I Tell My Story, I’m in Charge: Ethical and Effective Storytelling in Advocacy’, sets out a range of approaches, techniques and examples to inform community legal centres in their advocacy efforts for systemic change.