The Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) is an Australian
human rights group A human rights group, or human rights organization, is a non-governmental organization which advocates for human rights through identification of their violation, collecting incident data, its analysis and publication, promotion of public awareness ...
, with locations in
South Melbourne
South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...
and
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
.
Activities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
In April 2019, the HRLC compiled data showing that
Indigenous Australian
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
women were arrested for public drunkenness at 10 times the rate of the general population. This was part of an effort to convince a coroner to rule
systemic racism
Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, healt ...
played a role in the death of
Tanya Day, an
Aboriginal woman who
died in police custody.
In May 2019 the
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released figures showing that Indigenous minors were 17 times more likely to be in prison than non-Indigenous youth. Indigenous youth made up 48% of those aged 10–17 in prison, but were only 5% of the general population aged 10–17. The HRLC joined
Change the Record, an Aboriginal-led coalition of legal and human rights organisations calling for law reform. Ruth Barson was quoted as saying that it was "common sense" that children should be in school and playgrounds, not prisons.
Abortion
In May 2019, the HRLC joined 59 other organisations lobbying the
New South Wales Government
The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...
to remove
abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...
as a criminal offence in the state.
In April 2019 the HRLC (along with the Melbourne Fertility Control Clinic and
Castan Centre for Human Rights Law) was granted permission to intervene in
High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is Australia's apex court. It exercises Original jurisdiction, original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified within Constitution of Australia, Australia's Constitution.
The High Court was established fol ...
cases (''Clubb v Preston'' and ''Preston v Avery'') where two
anti-abortion
Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...
activists were challenging "safe zone" laws in
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
and
Tasmania
)
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which prevented harassment and protesting too close to medical facilities which provide abortions. The HRLC intervened on the side of the
Victorian and
Tasmanian state governments, and the
High Court eventually ruled in their favour.
Asylum seekers
In May 2019, following the February 18 passage of "
medevac
Medical evacuation, often shortened to medevac or medivac, is the timely and efficient movement and en route care provided by medical personnel to wounded being evacuated from a battlefield, to injured patients being evacuated from the scene of a ...
" amendments to the ''
Migration Act 1958
The ''Migration Act 1958'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that governs immigration to Australia. It set up Australia’s universal visa system (or entry permits). Its long title is "An Act relating to the entry into, and pres ...
'', the HRLC joined a coalition to organisations including
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
and the
Refugee Council of Australia
The Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA) is New South Wales-based umbrella not-for-profit for organisations that support and advocate for refugees and asylum seekers. the president of RCOA is Jasmina Bajraktarevic-Hayward, the chair is Maya Cr ...
to help sick refugees detained in offshore detention centres on
Manus Island
Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth-largest island in Papua New Guinea, with an area of , measuring around . Manus Island is covered in rugged jungles w ...
and
Nauru
Nauru ( or ; na, Naoero), officially the Republic of Nauru ( na, Repubrikin Naoero) and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in Oceania, in the Central Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Ki ...
gain access to medical transport to mainland Australia.
In October 2017, the HRLC criticised
Canstruct International for taking a $591 million
Australian Government
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...
contract to run the Nauru Regional Processing Centre. HRLC said Canstruct was taking up a "poisoned chalice" and that it would be "complicit" in an "internationally abusive system", that there was no ethical way for it to be involved. Keren Adams from the HRLC said “It is particularly appalling that the contract has been awarded to an engineering company with zero experience dealing with vulnerable people
..Canstruct is an engineering company with a background building bridges. In accepting this contract, it will be taking the job of running a cruel, open-air prison detaining people, including many children, who are deeply traumatised.”
Citizenship rights
In January 2019, the HRLC criticised the
Coalition
A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces.
Formation
According to ''A Gui ...
Government of
Scott Morrison
Scott John Morrison (; born 13 May 1968) is an Australian politician. He served as the 30th prime minister of Australia and as Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia from 2018 to 2022, and is currently the member of parliament (MP) for t ...
for their plans to pass laws expanding powers of the
Home Affairs Department
The Home Affairs Department is an executive agency in the government of Hong Kong responsible for internal affairs of the territory. It reports to the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, headed by the Secretary for Home Affairs.
Purpose
The Dep ...
(at the time headed by
Peter Dutton
Peter Craig Dutton (born 18 November 1970) is an Australian politician who has been leader of the opposition and leader of the Liberal Party since May 2022. He has represented the Queensland seat of Dickson in the House of Representatives sinc ...
) to strip Australians of their citizenship. The HRLC argued that expanding this power would risk making people
stateless for minor crimes. Emily Howie warned "If Parliament passes this bill, we could see people banished to countries they’ve never even visited for crimes that were not even serious enough for a court to impose a prison sentence,"
Gender and sexual minorities
In August 2017 the HRLC launched a High Court challenge (''Ors; Australian Marriage Equality Ltd & Anor v Minister for Finance & Anor
017HCA 40 (M105/M106 of 2017)'') against the
Australian Federal Government
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...
in regards to the
Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey
The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey was a national survey designed to gauge support for legalising same-sex marriage in Australia. The survey was held via the postal service between 12 September and 7 November 2017. Unlike voting in ...
. The action was launched behalf of
Australian Marriage Equality
Australian Marriage Equality (AME) was an advocacy group driven by volunteers who came together to pursue the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia. AME partnered with a diverse range of organisations and supporters across the country to ...
, and Senator
Janet Rice
Janet Elizabeth Rice (born 18 November 1960) is an Australian politician, member of the Australian Greens, former councillor and mayor of Maribyrnong, environmentalist, facilitator and one of the founding members of the Victorian Greens.
Early ...
. Anna Brown, then-Director of Legal Advocacy at the HRLC, said that the postal survey was designed to frustrate and delay
marriage equality
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...
. Though the HRLC's legal argument focused on whether the Minister actually had the power the spend tens of millions of dollars on the nation-wide survey. The High Court eventually ruled against the HRLC and other plaintiffs, and the survey went ahead. Afterwards, HRLC noted reports showing that the debate surrounding the survey had a negative effect on
LGBTI
Intersex people are born with sex characteristics (such as genitals, gonads, and chromosome patterns) that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies". They are substantially more likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, ...
Australians.
In September 2014, the HRLC spoke in support of the Victorian Government allowing men who were convicted of having gay sex to apply to have their convictions erased. Anna Brown said this would help the men move past the shame of having a criminal record for something that shouldn't have been a crime in the first place.
Voting rights
In August 2007, the HRLC ran a High Court challenge, ''
''. The High Court eventually ruled that a federal law preventing most prisoners from voting was unconstitutional.
Youth prisoners
In April 2019 the HRLC joined the independent
Inspector for Custodial Services in condemning the practice in
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
n prisons of routinely strip-searching prisons, especially minors, without any prior suspicion of wrongdoing. Ruth Barson described the practice as "invasive, traumatic and entirely unnecessary" adding that it "strips people of dignity".
The HRLC has also made statements about Indigenous youth prisoners.
Governance
In May 2019 Hugh de Kretser was Executive Director of HRLC.
References
External links
*
*
{{Asylumaustralia
Human rights organisations based in Australia