Recent developents in the Australian Human Rights debate

In the Sydney Morning Herald on August 21, 2009 Richard Ackland highlights two recent developments which he believes might provide some context to the present debate around an Australian charter or bill of rights.

One is last week’s NSW Law Reform Commission’s report recommending a law of privacy which followed a recent Australian Law Reform Commission report urging much the same thing.

The other is a decision of a federal appeals court in Canada applying its Charter of Rights and Freedoms to Omar Khadr, a young Canadian held without trial at Guantanamo Bay.

Mr Ackland believes both developments bolster the case for an Australian rights charter or bill.