Supporting Statement: Human Rights Law Resource Centre

The Human Rights Law Resource Centre strongly supports the enactment of comprehensive human rights legislation in Australia.

Introducing a Human Rights Act will enhance Australia’s democracy. It will provide a yardstick by which to measure the performance of all levels of government, the courts and the community. It will also assist disadvantaged people, who are more likely to deal directly with the public service. New laws, policies and public programs will be measured against the Human Rights Act to ensure that human rights are safeguarded. Government departments and agencies will have to consider the impact that their day-to-day operations are likely to have on human rights.

The experience in comparative jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, the Australian Capital Territory and, most recently, Victoria, is that the introduction of legislative human rights instruments have a significant impact on public sector culture, improving the community’s experience of Government. Some of the benefits ascribed to human rights instruments include:

a ‘significant, but beneficial, impact on the development of policy’;

• enhanced scrutiny, transparency and accountability in government;
• better public service outcomes and increased levels of ‘consumer’ satisfaction as a result of more participatory and empowering policy development processes and more individualised, flexible and responsive public services;
• ‘new thinking’ as the core human rights principles of dignity, equality, respect, fairness and autonomy can help decision-makers ‘see seemingly intractable problems in a new light’;
• the language and ideas of rights can be used to secure positive changes not only to individual circumstances, but also to policies and procedures; and
• awareness-raising, education and capacity building around human rights can empower people and lead to improved public service delivery and outcomes. [1]

Charters operate to open Governments’ eyes to human rights breaches that may otherwise be overlooked.

The Human Rights Act will constitute an historic leap forward for the protection of human rights in Australia. It will demonstrate Australia’s commitment to improving social justice and fairness, particularly for the disadvantaged, and display a commitment to Australia’s international human rights obligations.

Australia’s ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has created international law obligations that require all arms of the federal system to act to respect, protect and fulfil human rights.

The Human Rights Act will foster a society that values and respects human rights and social justice - a society that will be inherited by future generations of Australians.

Philip Lynch, Executive Director, Human Rights Law Resource Centre

[1] See generally, Department for Constitutional Affairs (UK) (the DCA), Review of the Implementation of the Human Rights Act (July 2006) (the DCA Review); British Institute of Human Rights, The Human Rights Act: Changing Lives (2007); Audit Commission (UK), Human Rights: Improving Public Service Delivery (October 2003).