February is a key month for human rights in Australia. Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights is finalising its report and recommendations after a year-long inquiry into the nation’s human rights framework. Chair Josh Burns is due to hand the blueprint for the future to the Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, by the end of March. Many issues in this CLArion will be top of mind as this report changes hands. They include treatment of Indigenous Australians, forensic disasters in laboratories and courtrooms, secrecy across government, and questionable cultures like those permeating police forces and others breeding in newly-emerging far-right groups. The crucial issue of homelessness is also likely to feature strongly. Other items in this issue include:
- International report says Australia is failing its Indigenous people
- Get your submission in by 16 February to SA Human Rights Act inquiry
- Illegally detained refugees seek damages and fuller freedom
- CLA’s Oz Day 2024 letter targets ongoing, increasing, forensic problem
- WA and Qld under closer watch for abusing rights of Indigenous kids
- Judge refuses to send boy to ‘barbaric dungeon’ jail over Christmas
- Supreme Court judge charged in Tasmania…and in NSW
- Nurses to stand for parliament
- US using private sector tools to expand surveillance
- 50 million criminal cases pending, 300 years needed to clear the
- CCRC delivers exonerations after 50-year gap
- Avatar suffers sexual assault