Leading international lawyer, Professor Hilary Charlesworth, says Australia should do more nationally and internationally to boost human rights. In a think-piece about the role of Attorney-General, she calls on the incumbent, Nicola Roxon, to show leadership by speaking out and up for liberties, rights and freedoms
Professor wants AG to push human rights
One of Australia’s leading international lawyers has called on Attorney-General Nicola Roxon to promote human rights more nationally, and for Australia to advocate more strongly for adherence to human rights in the rest of the world.
Professor Hilary Charlesworth was commenting on what she would do if she was made AG, in an article in the Human Rights Law Centre’s May 2012 bulletin. Prof Charlesworth is an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and Director of the Centre for International Governance and Justice at ANU in Canberra.
She wrote:
Leadership from an internationally-minded Attorney-General could change our international reputation and also strengthen the Australian legal system. Four ideas for our new Attorney-General to consider are:
- wledging the gaps in Australia’s implementation of its human rights obligations and setting out a plan to remedy them systematically and in a way that can be measured. The UPR recommendations (including those rejected by Australia) provide a valuable starting point.
- Participating more fully in the international human rights system by ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (now being considered by JSCOT) and becoming a party to the Optional Protocol to ICESCR and the Migrant Workers and Disappearances Conventions.
- Standing for election to the UN Human Rights Council and encouraging the Council to work on strengthening human rights protection across the globe.
- Becoming more active in objecting to reservations made by countries to human rights treaties when the reservations are incompatible with the object and purpose of the treaty.
“This would signal a renewed commitment to the integrity of the UN treaty system,” Prof Charlesworth said.