http://www.humanrightsact.com.au/2008 Thu, 03 Jun 2010 05:48:03 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Hopes that the Rudd government would bring Australia into line with the rest of the civilised world were dashed today when the Attorney General rejected the recommendations of the Brennan Inquiry to implement legislation to protect human rights in Australia. This should not come as a surprise to anyone who has ... http://www.humanrightsact.com.au/2008/2010/04/21/attorney-general-caves-in-on-human-rights-act/ The 2009 report on the operation of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities,produced by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission for the Attorney-General, was tabled in Parliament today and shows that rights protection is a positive force in ensuring fairer laws and policies and improving the delivery ... http://www.humanrightsact.com.au/2008/2010/04/14/rights-protection-is-the-best-way-forward-says-commissioner/ Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald on April 2, 2010, Richard Ackland reviews the Victorian Court of Appeal's landmark ruling in the Momcilovic case that a piece of legislation removing the presumption of innocence is incompatible with that state's Charter of Rights and Responsibilities. He uses this ruling to debunk the core claim made by ... http://www.humanrightsact.com.au/2008/2010/04/08/a-cool-rights-ruling-to-quell-the-anti-chartists-bluster/ Writing in WA Today (19/3/10) former West Australian premier Geoff Gallop warned that without a national Human Rights Act, basic human rights are being progressively destroyed by "authoritarian" governments across Australia. In his speech to the Human Rights Arts & Film Festival, Gallop argued that recent state laws had breached human rights. He ... http://www.humanrightsact.com.au/2008/2010/03/25/governments-get-too-authoritarian-gallop/ Writing in The Australia (19/03/2010) Adam McBeth  exposes James Allens latest misprepresentations. Read his full piece here in The Australian. http://www.humanrightsact.com.au/2008/2010/03/25/rights-response-is-this-the-final-say-lies-with-the-elected/ Writing in The Age on March 20, 2010 Ed Santow discusses the decision by the Victorian Court of Appeal that the trial of a suspected drug trafficker infringes Victoria's Charter of Rights. The court found that the drug law violated the presumption that a person is innocent until proven guilty but accepted ... http://www.humanrightsact.com.au/2008/2010/03/25/presumption-of-innocence-protected/ An opinion piece in the March 2010 edition of the Human Rights Law Resource Centre Bulletin, written by Centre Director Phil Lynch and a Senior Lawyer with the Centre, Emily Howie. In it they explore the unique opportunity the Rudd government now has to promote the advancement of business and human ... http://www.humanrightsact.com.au/2008/2010/02/25/australia-should-set-the-global-agenda-on-business-and-human-rights/ In March 2010 Bulletin there is also an interesting update on the UK human rights debate by Anita Coles, a Policy Officer at Liberty, one of the UK's leading civil liberties and human rights organisations. As part of its current Common Values campaign, which seeks to dispel the myths around the HRA ... http://www.humanrightsact.com.au/2008/2010/02/25/churchill%e2%80%99s-legacy-the-conservative-case-for-a-human-rights-act/ Recent comments in the media that the proposed human rights bill is "dead in the water" represent nothing more than unhelpful and self-serving speculation, according to director of the Human Rights Law Resource Centre Philip Lynch. Speaking to Lawyers Weekly today, Lynch slammed recent commentary on the state of the proposed ... http://www.humanrightsact.com.au/2008/2010/02/24/human-rights-proposal-still-afloat/ Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald (19/02/10) Richard Ackland suggests that "Reports of the death of a proposed bill or charter of rights may, as Mark Twain said of his own demise, be an exaggeration". Hopefully he is correct in this assessment. Mr Ackland also reviews the proposal for a parliamentary ... http://www.humanrightsact.com.au/2008/2010/02/19/the-quick-once-over-that-is-supposed-to-keep-us-free/