overview

principles

studies

Bills

Aust law

other law

treaties

war

crime

gender

faith

watchdogs

advocates

the UN

humanitarian

journals

animals

histories

landmarks
















related
Guides:

Privacy

Accessibility

Hate Speech

Censorship





related
Profile:

Australian
Constitution
& Cyberspace

     overview

This profile points to Australian and overseas human rights principles, statements, legislation and watchdogs.

It supplements discussion elsewhere on this site regarding privacy, security, censorship, cultural rights, accessibility, free speech and vilification, and other issues.

     this profile

The following pages cover -

• principles - writing about human rights principles and anti-discrimination legislation in Australia and overseas
• studies - highlights some of the general literature on human rights law: principles, legislation, treaties
• Bills of Rights - debate about Bills of Rights and constitutional or other rights protection in Australia and overseas
• Australian law - Federal and state/territory anti-discrimination and human rights legislation
• other law - overseas anti-discrimination and human rights legislation
• treaties - international human rights conventions, courts and studies
• war, terror and genocide - conventions, principles and disagreement about genocide, terrorism and human rights during war
• crime and justice - human rights in the courts and in prisons
• gender - fertility, affinity, relationships and children
• faith - religious and political belief, association
• watchdogs - Australian and overseas anti-discrimination agencies
• advocates - nongovernment advocates and observers such as Human Rights Watch, Privacy International, Amnesty International and Lawyers Without Borders
• the UN and other bodies - the Human Rights Council, the ILO, other UN entities concerned with human rights, and bodies such as the African Commission on Human & Peoples' Rights
• humanitarian - bodies such as the IRC and the evolving relationship between human rights law and humanitarian law
• journals - selected human rights journals, gateways and research centres
• animals - perspectives on human rights through reference to non-human animals
• landmarks - a chronology of human rights developments in Australia, New Zealand and overseas.

They provide a background to our discussion of online Accessibility, Privacy, politics and Hate Speech, and debate about free speech and Censorship. Reports and academic studies of particular legislation are identified in guides elsewhere on this site.

     orientation

The Australian Constitution, very much a product of its time, says little about human rights and when adopted in 1901 did not explicitly address questions of discrimination relating to gender, ethnicity, disability or economic circumstances.

In contrast to many countries - for example New Zealand, with the Bill of Rights Act 1990 (here) - Australia also does not have a Bill of Rights. Recurrent proposals for such a Bill or a Charter of Rights have gained little support.

The High Court, final interpreter of the Constitution, has traditionally been reluctant to concern itself with human rights issues. However, since the early 1990s it has indicated that it is prepared to develop the common law relating to human rights.

Examples are the 1992 decision in Australian Capital Television v Commonwealth that in determining an implied right to free political speech provides a basis for exploration of whether other human rights are implied in the Constitution and the 2001 Lenah v ABC decision regarding privacy.

Federal and state legislatures have been more active, although development of anti-discrimination legislation across the individual states has been quite uneven.

As the the following pages of this profile suggest, legislative change has concentrated on three areas -

• recognition that Indigenous people in Australia are citizens and should not suffer discrimination regarding participation in the census and franchise
• anticipation and adoption of international instruments such as the Convention concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment & Occupation through legislation such as the South Australian Prohibition of Discrimination Act 1966 and Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act 1984
• extension through enactments such as the NSW Anti-Discrimination (Homosexual Vilification) Amendment Act 1993 and Commonwealth Racial Hatred Act 1995 to address vilification.

There has been little specific attention to the internet. The Australian landmarks probably remain -

• SOCOG's fine of $20,000 after ignoring the adverse ruling by the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) in Maguire v SOCOG, the 'online accessibility' case - discussed here - under the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act.
• recognition by Australian courts and human rights agencies that existing provisions regarding ethnic or other vilification extend to cyberspace, with for example action against a Holocaust denial site 

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