Refine results
-
Legal
18 November 2014SubmissionReview of parentage laws
Download PDF Download Word -
Sex Discrimination
8 December 2022SpeechNational Press Club Address: Changing Laws, Changing Behaviours, Changing Lives
Speech by Australia's National Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, to the National Press Club on 30 November, 2022. -
Children's Rights
12 April 2023SubmissionFamily Law Amendment Bill 2023
Submission by the National Children's Commissioner to the Attorney-General's Department on the exposure draft of the Family Law Amendment Bill 2023. -
Technology and Human Rights
30 October 2024SubmissionPrivacy and Doxxing Reform Bill
Learn more about how reforms to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) will better protect human rights in Australia -
14 December 2012Book page
Mandatory detention laws in Australia
Briefing paper Outlines and evaluates the state and territory laws. The paper describes the impact of the laws and provides a summary of criticisms made by others. -
14 December 2012Book page
Mandatory detention laws in Australia
Mandatory detention laws were enacted in Western Australia and the Northern Territory in 1996 and 1997 respectively. Essentially these laws require courts to impose minimum sentences of detention or imprisonment for people convicted of certain offences. They effectively remove judicial discretion in relation to those offences. -
14 December 2012Book page
Same-Sex: Same Entitlements: Laws
The following 58 laws must be amended to eliminate discrimination against same-sex couples and their children in the area of federal financial and work-related entitlements. -
Legal
17 January 2019Speech
‘Vulnerability and the Law’ - UNSW
University of New South Wales Law Journal Launch of Thematic Issue on ‘Vulnerability and the Law’ Vol 41(3) 2018 27 September 2018 * Check against delivery Acknowledgements I pay my respects to the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and to their elders past and present—as well as to emerging leaders. Thank you to Lachlan Peake and Veronica Sebesfi for the invitation to speak tonight. Can I… -
Legal
20 March 2023Submission
Religious Educational Institutions and Anti-Discrimination Laws
The Australian Human Rights Commission (Commission) makes this submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) in relation to its inquiry into Religious Educational Institutions and Anti-Discrimination Laws. -
Employers11 February 2015Webpage
A quick guide to Australian discrimination laws
Explore key information about Australia's anti-discrimination laws for employers. -
14 December 2012Book page
Mandatory detention laws in Australia (2001)
This paper gives a brief overview of the mandatory detention laws currently operating in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It examines their operation and gives some insights into how they have impacted on particular groups including young people and Indigenous Australians. It gives a critique of mandatory detention by reference to Australia's international human rights obligations,… -
Children's Rights
11 October 2024News story
NT Government urged not to lower age of criminal responsibility
The National Children’s Commissioner and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Commissioner have urged the Northern Territory Government to reverse its plan next week to introduce a new law to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to ten years. -
Rights and Freedoms
6 June 2019SpeechLaw, Lawyers and Human Rights
Law Week Breakfast Law Society of Western Australia Perth, 13 May 2019 Emeritus Professor Rosalind Croucher AM, President, Australian Human Rights Commission Acknowledgements Thanks to Greg McIntyre SC, President of the Law Society of Western Australia, for the wonderful invitation to speak at the opening of Law Week in Perth. I would like to begin my contribution by acknowledging the… -
Children's Rights
11 October 2024Media Release
We must ‘help way earlier’ – united call to address systemic failures of Australia’s youth justice systems
Joint media release: Justice Reform Initiative and Australian Human Rights Commission Law and justice leaders, parliamentarians, First Nations leaders, child safety advocates, community service providers, peak organisations, and people with lived experience of child imprisonment from around Australia will come together for a landmark parliamentary event in Canberra on Thursday. Amid an… -
Rights and Freedoms
22 January 2014Opinion piece
Freedoms versus anti-discrimination laws? A false debate
Responsibility, anti-discrimination laws, human rights and freedoms - these words have been at the center of an ideological debate about how to protect fundamental freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom from detention without trial. But if we are serious about securing these fundamental freedoms in Australian law, we must legislate to protect them, just as… -
Rights and Freedoms
1 May 2013Webpage
Prohibition on retrospective criminal laws
Learn how people can't be found guilty of a criminal offence that was not viewed as a criminal offence under the law at the time when it was committed. -
3 October 2014Opinion piece
Time to strengthen our lax surrogacy laws
Nationwide regulations are urgently needed to cover situations when Australians are engaging surrogates to have children for them. The range of assisted reproductive technologies available today presents many legal, moral and ethical challenges. These are challenges we can no longer ignore and require national, state and international leadership. In Australia, altruistic surrogacy is… -
Rights and Freedoms
29 July 2021Webpage
Face masks and federal discrimination law
At various times during the COVID-19 pandemic, state and territory governments in Australia have made it a requirement for people to wear a face mask in certain settings. The different rules and exemptions around face masks are set out in the relevant state and territory public health orders. The latest mask-wearing requirements can be found on the appropriate state and territory government… -
Children's Rights
25 August 2023Media Release
National Children’s Commissioner slams ‘shocking’ new Qld youth justice laws
The National Children’s Commissioner has expressed alarm at the Queensland Government rushing through legislation to allow children to be detained indefinitely in adult detention facilities, in a further contravention of the Queensland Human Rights Act. -
Rights and Freedoms
14 December 2012Opinion piece
Opinion Pieces - Scrutinising our counter-terrorism laws (2008)
In 2006, I was a member of the Government-appointed Sheller Committee, which recommended the establishment of an independent review of counter-terrorism laws.