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ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ's Rights
National ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ’s Commissioner slams ‘shocking’ new Qld youth justice laws
The National ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ’s Commissioner has expressed alarm at the Queensland Government rushing through legislation to allow children to be detained indefinitely in adult detention facilities, in a further contravention of the Queensland Human Rights Act.
Rights and Freedoms
Australia needs to deliver on our treaty promises
As with any agreement, there are certain requirements that OPCAT signatories need to fulfill, and Australia has been given longer than any other country to meet our OPCAT commitments. Today – 20 January 2023 – is our extended compliance deadline, and Australia has failed to deliver on our promises.
ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ's Rights
Governments must urgently address youth justice crisis
The ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ calls on all Australian governments to urgently address the national crisis in youth justice to prevent further harm to children in detention, and to reduce youth offending through effective systems of support.
ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ's Rights
Governments must prioritise raising the age
National ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ’s Commissioner, Anne Hollonds and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, June Oscar AO have urged all Australian governments to raise the age of criminal responsibility as a matter of priority. A report commissioned by a meeting of Attorneys-General in...
Commission – General
August ebulletin
We have heard the words human rights quite a lot in recent weeks, in varied and sometimes inaccurate settings. Measures to protect our health and safety must be balanced with our rights and freedoms, but if there was ever a time to articulate where that line is, it would be now. Which is why last...
Rights and Freedoms
Winners announced - 2018 Human Rights Awards
The Honourable Justice Peter McClellan AM and Chrissie Foster have won the prestigious 2018 Human Rights Medal for their enormous contribution to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Chrissie Foster has long campaigned for justice for survivors of institutional...
Disability Rights
Equal before the law? How the criminal justice system is failing people with disability
I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay my respect to their elders past and present. I am delighted to be here today to deliver the 2016 Annual Costello Lecture. Last year, the President of the ºÚÁÏÇ鱨վ, Professor Gillian Triggs, delivered...
Rights and Freedoms
Logic says Valizadeh shouldn't get a visa
Daryush "Roosh" Valizadeh’s freedom of speech won’t be suppressed if the Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, denies him a visa. In the past few days there have been increasing calls on the Federal Government to block so-called ‘neo-masculinist’ Valizadeh from entering Australia. Outraged politicians...
Race Discrimination
Forty years of the Racial Discrimination Act
In October 1975, at a ceremony for the proclamation of the Racial Discrimination Act, then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam described the legislation as ‘a historic measure’, which aimed to ‘entrench new attitudes of tolerance and understanding in the hearts and minds of the people’.(1) The Act was...
Disability Rights
The Human Rights of Mentally Ill People:the HREOC inquiry and after
I congratulate the Probation and Parole Officers' Association for their initiative in organizing this conference on Mental Health, Criminal Justice and Corrections.
Commission – General
10th International Criminal Congress
The topic of this seminar is ‘Criminal Justice in a climate of fear’. The word terrorism is not mentioned and yet the subject invites discussion of the impact of terrorism on life and laws in Australia.
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