Submission: Ending racially discriminatory laws that lead to the over-imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission invited the Human Rights Law Centre to make a submission on how to end racially discriminatory laws that lead to the over-imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls.
The submission is made as part of the Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices) project, which is a national conversation led by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls to hear their priorities, challenges and aspirations for themselves, their families and their future.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are the fastest growing group of prisoners in Australia. The submission highlights racially discriminatory laws that contribute to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women getting trapped in the quicksand of the legal system. The submissions makes 25 recommendations with a focus on all levels of government committing to decarceration strategies to significantly reduce the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who are being separated from their communities and families and forced into prisons.
“The vast majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women will never enter the legal system, yet they are vastly over-represented behind bars. We need a new approach to justice – one that prioritises supporting women and girls to thrive in the community, rather than rather than pushing them into prisons,” said Monique Hurley, Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre.
Submission to 2025-26 Federal Budget consultation
The Human Rights Law Centre has put forward recommendations to the 2025-26 federal budget submissions across a range of issues, including campaigning for an Australian Human Rights Act, migration justice, prisoners’ rights, whistleblower protection and modern slavery.
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Submission to Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Act 2021 review
The Human Rights Law Centre is calling for stronger safeguards for the right to privacy and warned that these powers enable the AFP and ACIC to undertake significant invasions of privacy, encroach on the right to privacy, and threaten to have a chilling effect on the work of journalists and their sources.
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Submission to Inquiry into antisemitism at Australian universities
In a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights’ inquiry into antisemitism on Australian university campuses, the Human Rights Law Centre has called for reforms that uphold Australia's commitment to international human rights standards, fostering a society that respects equality, freedom, and justice for all.
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Acknowledgement of Country
The Human Rights Law Centre acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands across Australia, including the lands of the Wurundjeri, Boon Wurrung, Gadigal, Ngunnawal, Cammeraygal, Darug, Wadawurrung, Turrbal and Jagera people where we work from.
We pay our respect to Elders past and present. This land always was, and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
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