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The office of the Commissioner for Community Relations was established by the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 as originally passed, and continued as part of the Human Rights Commission from 1981 to 1986. In December 1986 this office was replaced by the Race Discrimination Commissioner, established as part of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and now the Australian Human Rights…

Explore how common law rights, human rights scrutiny, and the rule of law protect fundamental freedoms in Australia, despite the absence of a Constitutional Bill of Rights.

back to Commission's Immigration detention on Christmas Island report (2012) Department of Immigration and Citizenship Response to the 2012 Australian Human Rights Commission Report on Immigration Detention at Christmas Island Download in PDF [ 36 KB ] Download in Word [ 126 KB ] Introduction The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) welcomes the opportunity to respond to the…

Human Rights Council Resolution A/HRC/RES/23/2 - 24 June 2013 Recalling further General Assembly resolutions relating to the issue of women’s empowerment, including resolutions 66/130 of 19 December 2011, on women and political participation, and 66/216 o f 22 December 2011, on women in development, and the agreed conclusions of the Commission on the Status of Women, Reaffirming articles 19…

Human rights indicators are essential tools in turning human rights from legal principles into realities. The importance of development and application of appropriate indicators of human rights performance and progress is increasingly being recognised internationally and within Australia. The Commission promotes and participates in development of human rights indicators in Australia and…

United Nations Workshop on National Institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights Paris, 7-9 October 1991 Paper submitted by the Federal Human Rights Commissioner of Australia (Mr Brian Burdekin)

In 1993 the World Conference on Human Rights recommended that each State consider the desirability of drawing up a national action plan identifying steps whereby that State would improve the promotion and protection of human rights. This was a result of an initiative by Australia, and was a concept principally developed by Mr Bill Barker of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and…

In 1994 Australia was the first nation in the world to provide a National Action Plan on Human Rights. This Plan is now difficult to find on Australian Government or United Nations sites and so it is attached here in MS Word and PDF formats for convenient access together with a 1995 update. Australia: Initial Human Rights Action Plan (Word) or PDF 1995 update (Word) or PDF

Back to rights and freedoms: right by right ICCPR Article 24 states: ... Every child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have a name. Every child has the right to acquire a nationality. Rights in this area are also recognised in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) , the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination…

See how some human rights are recognised as absolute rights that can't be limited, including freedom from torture, slavery and retrospective criminal laws.

Brough v Australia (2006) Views of Committee in Word and PDF Government response in Word and PDF Aboriginal youth with intellectual disability and suicidal thoughts detained in isolation in adult prison including 24 hours a day lighting. Human rights violations found regarding articles 10 and 24. Claim by Australia that domestic remedies not exhausted, rejected in detail. Cabal and Pasini v …

Article 18 of the ICCPR distinguishes between the freedom to hold a particular belief, and the freedom to manifest that belief in conduct. It is clear from the different focuses of paragraphs (2) and (3) of article 18 that the freedom to hold a belief is broader than the freedom to act upon it. Of course, persons who express religious opinions may also be protected under , which recognises…

Article 18 of the ICCPR explicitly includes the freedom to manifest beliefs ‘in community with others’. As prominent human rights scholar Yoram Dinstein explains: ... freedom of religion, as an individual right, may be nullified unless complemented by a collective human right of the religious group to construct the infrastructure making possible the full enjoyment of that freedom by…

These papers have been added to this site for research and historical purposes. Australia's first federal Human Rights Commission was established by the Fraser Government under the Human Rights Commission Act 1981. The first Commission was replaced by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (now renamed as the Australian Human Rights Commission) in December 1986. The first…