Greater oversight needed in places of detention: COVID-19 Committee told
The Human Rights Law Centre, along with an alliance of civil society and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and senior academics, have made a joint submission to the Senate Committee tasked with investigating the Federal Government’s response to COVID-19.
The submission is informed by the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), an international treaty which aims to prevent mistreatment and promote humane conditions in places of detention by establishing systems for independent monitoring and inspection. The alliance calls for transparency in places of detention to ensure that solitary confinement, lockdowns, and other practices that could amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, are not being used as part of the response to COVID-19. The submission also calls for greater oversight of places of detention beyond the pandemic.
Read the Human Rights Law Centre’s submission to the Senate COVID-19 here.
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
WARNING: This site contains images or names of people who have passed away.