Promoting people's rights and civil liberties. It is non-party political and independent of other organisations.
CLA welcomes human rights report, calls on MPs for bipartisan action

HR ReportCLA welcomes human rights report,
calls on MPs for bipartisan action

CLA congratulates the National Human Rights Consultation Committee for an excellent report and recommendations after an exhausting process. Now it is time for the politicians to respond in a bipartisan way to what the people clearly want – a clear and unequivocal statement of our rights and liberties as Australians, with the force of Parliament behind it.

NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CONSULTATION REPORT

CLA welcomes human rights report,
calls on MPs for bipartisan action

Civil Liberties Australia’s position is that we support a bipartisan charter of rights, owned and defended by all parliamentarians.

For that reason, we strongly support the National Human Rights Consultation Committee’s report and recommendations, CLA President Dr Kristine Klugman said.

“Our elected leaders could adopt recommendations in this report without giving judges any additional power, merely ensuring that they must interpret laws in a manner consistent with human rights.

“Or, our politicians could take the next step – the one the Australian people want – and give the courts an Act of Parliament as a guarantee that federal politicians and the public service will be accountable for respecting, protecting and promoting the human rights of all Australians…

“The Australia community’s positive response to this consultation suggests that the time is right for our elected leaders to better protect and promote human rights,” she said.

“I recommend this report to all civil libertarians, and to people who are concerned with helping the vulnerable in Australian society. The report is a stimulating and encouraging read.”

Dr Klugman said the key recommendations made in the report were:

  • We need to educate Australians about their rights. This is a critical first step, and a formal national action plan is needed to focus on letting people know about their basic rights, liberties and responsibilities, such as to:
    • respect the rights of others
    • support parliamentary democracy and the rule of law
    • uphold and obey the laws of Australia
    • serve on a jury when required
    • vote and to ensure to the best of our ability that our vote is informed
    • show respect for diversity and the equal worth, dignity and freedom of others
    • promote peaceful means for the resolution of conflict and just outcomes
    • to acknowledge and respect the special place of our Indigenous people and
    • acknowledge the need to redress their disadvantage
    • to promote and protect the rights of the vulnerable
    • to play an active role in monitoring the extent to which governments are protecting the rights of the most vulnerable
    • to ensure that we are attentive to the needs of our fellow human beings and contribute according to our means.
  • We should audit existing laws and rules to see whether they comply with human rights;
  • The Australian Government needs to compile immediately a list of existing rights drawn from international conventions that we have already signed up to;
  • All new legislation must be compared with our human rights list for compatibility;
  • Parliament should have a Joint Committee on Human Rights, with members from both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the committee should be able to review all Bills;
  • There should be a Minister who has Human Rights as a core portfolio responsibility;
  • Public Servants must ensure human rights are included in all government decisions and programs, including in their own PS Values and Code of Conduct documents.
  • Acts and functions of all government departments and agencies should be amended to better incorporate human rights, including improving the powers of the Australian Human Rights Commission;
  • Indigenous Australians should get special consideration in terms of self-determination and their participating in the Australian democratic process;
  • There should be a Human Rights Act, with some basic rights cemented forever and others able to be changed by parliamentary vote;
  • The High Court should be able to declare a provision of an Act of Parliament incompatible with the Human Rights Act;
  • People should be able to take legal action if they think their rights have been breached.

“It seems that Australians in general don’t know much about their rights and civil liberties, according to the report,” Dr Klugman said.

“The first recommendation of the committee is therefore of great importance because, if we as citizens don’t insist on our rights, the politicians are unlikely to put a high priority on them!”

Dr Klugman said: “Critics say we don’t need a charter of rights: and they are right, for themselves…they don’t need the protection of human rights legislation, because they are part of the powerful elite, with money, position, power and influence so they can defend their personal rights themselves.

“It’s the powerless in society who need the charter of rights, which is what the consultation committee has confirmed, to their credit.”

As the committee said:

A majority of the thousands who responded to the Consultation sought to draw the Committee’s attention to the plight of society’s most vulnerable. Most of the participants felt that the protections afforded by majoritarian rule do not necessarily adequately take account of those who ‘fall through the cracks’. The written submissions and the voices of participants sought to harness our collective imagination as a civilised nation, to imagine ourselves in the shoes of others, and to respond with the compassion that is ultimately the measure of our humanity.

CLA congratulates the committee on a comprehensive and masterly report.

“Given the restricted terms of reference they were given, the committee has acted courageously,” Dr Klugman said.

“The most positive, over-riding effect of this consultation has been to raise the consciousness of the community to rights issues and to start the public discourse we have to have.

“A formal national education campaign will extend the impact of the consultation process….but ultimately, to enact a bill or charter of rights is a political decision.

“CLA calls on all Parliamentarians to engage positively with the continuing processes of producing an agreed list of what our rights and responsibilities already are, and should be.

“Those tenets of Australian society should then receive bipartisan support in an agreed document which has the power of the Parliament behind it, so it can protect and support ‘society’s most vulnerable’,” Dr Klugman said.

Kris Klugman
October 2009

National Human Rights Consultation Committee’s report:
http://www.humanrightsconsultation.gov.au/www/nhrcc/nhrcc.nsf/Page/Report_NationalHumanRightsConsultationReportDownloads

Read CLA’s submission to the NHRCC

Translate »