How are our human rights protected in law in Australia during COVID-19?

Existing laws continue to apply in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic to protect people’s human rights. For example, people can bring complaints of discrimination or breaches of human rights to the Commission, or state and territory human rights and equal opportunity commissions if they are treated unlawfully.

Legal protections of human rights in Australia

Most Australians would be surprised to learn that there are very few direct legal protections of human rights in Australia.

Australia has laws to protect people against discrimination, but we don’t have laws throughout Australia that set down positively the rights and freedoms we should enjoy in Australia and what that should look like.

Victoria, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory have Human Rights Acts that require the governments in those places to act consistently with human rights and to fully consider human rights in law, policy and practice. No such law exists at the federal level or in other states and territories.

Australia is one of the only liberal democracies in the world that does not have its own Human Rights Act at the national level. 

The Australian Human Rights Commission supports the introduction of a Human Rights Act in Australia to better protect the fundamental human rights of all people in Australia.

The Commission is currently undertaking a major project to identify what steps need to be taken to realise human rights for everyone in Australia. You can find out more about the Free and Equal project here.