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Human Rights Law Centre
The Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) is an Australian human rights group, with locations in South Melbourne and Sydney.
In April 2019, the HRLC compiled data showing that Indigenous Australian women were arrested for public drunkenness at 10 times the rate of the general population. This was part of an effort to convince a coroner to rule systemic racism played a role in the death of Tanya Day, an Aboriginal woman who died in police custody.
In May 2019 the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released figures showing that Indigenous minors were 17 times more likely to be in prison than non-Indigenous youth. Indigenous youth made up 48% of those aged 10–17 in prison, but were only 5% of the general population aged 10–17. The HRLC joined Change the Record, an Aboriginal-led coalition of legal and human rights organisations calling for law reform. Ruth Barson was quoted as saying that it was "common sense" that children should be in school and playgrounds, not prisons.
In May 2019, the HRLC joined 59 other organisations lobbying the New South Wales Government to remove abortion as a criminal offence in the state.
In April 2019 the HRLC (along with the Melbourne Fertility Control Clinic and Castan Centre for Human Rights Law) was granted permission to intervene in High Court of Australia cases (Clubb v Preston and Preston v Avery) where two anti-abortion activists were challenging "safe zone" laws in Victoria and Tasmania which prevented harassment and protesting too close to medical facilities which provide abortions. The HRLC intervened on the side of the Victorian and Tasmanian state governments, and the High Court eventually ruled in their favour.
In May 2019, following the February 18 passage of "medevac" amendments to the Migration Act 1958, the HRLC joined a coalition to organisations including Amnesty International and the Refugee Council of Australia to help sick refugees detained in offshore detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru gain access to medical transport to mainland Australia.
In October 2017, the HRLC criticised Canstruct International for taking a $591 million Australian Government contract to run the Nauru Regional Processing Centre. HRLC said Canstruct was taking up a "poisoned chalice" and that it would be "complicit" in an "internationally abusive system", that there was no ethical way for it to be involved. Keren Adams from the HRLC said “It is particularly appalling that the contract has been awarded to an engineering company with zero experience dealing with vulnerable people [...] Canstruct is an engineering company with a background building bridges. In accepting this contract, it will be taking the job of running a cruel, open-air prison detaining people, including many children, who are deeply traumatised.”
In January 2019, the HRLC criticised the Coalition Government of Scott Morrison for their plans to pass laws expanding powers of the Home Affairs Department (at the time headed by Peter Dutton) to strip Australians of their citizenship. The HRLC argued that expanding this power would risk making people stateless for minor crimes. Emily Howie warned "If Parliament passes this bill, we could see people banished to countries they’ve never even visited for crimes that were not even serious enough for a court to impose a prison sentence,"
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Human Rights Law Centre
The Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) is an Australian human rights group, with locations in South Melbourne and Sydney.
In April 2019, the HRLC compiled data showing that Indigenous Australian women were arrested for public drunkenness at 10 times the rate of the general population. This was part of an effort to convince a coroner to rule systemic racism played a role in the death of Tanya Day, an Aboriginal woman who died in police custody.
In May 2019 the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released figures showing that Indigenous minors were 17 times more likely to be in prison than non-Indigenous youth. Indigenous youth made up 48% of those aged 10–17 in prison, but were only 5% of the general population aged 10–17. The HRLC joined Change the Record, an Aboriginal-led coalition of legal and human rights organisations calling for law reform. Ruth Barson was quoted as saying that it was "common sense" that children should be in school and playgrounds, not prisons.
In May 2019, the HRLC joined 59 other organisations lobbying the New South Wales Government to remove abortion as a criminal offence in the state.
In April 2019 the HRLC (along with the Melbourne Fertility Control Clinic and Castan Centre for Human Rights Law) was granted permission to intervene in High Court of Australia cases (Clubb v Preston and Preston v Avery) where two anti-abortion activists were challenging "safe zone" laws in Victoria and Tasmania which prevented harassment and protesting too close to medical facilities which provide abortions. The HRLC intervened on the side of the Victorian and Tasmanian state governments, and the High Court eventually ruled in their favour.
In May 2019, following the February 18 passage of "medevac" amendments to the Migration Act 1958, the HRLC joined a coalition to organisations including Amnesty International and the Refugee Council of Australia to help sick refugees detained in offshore detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru gain access to medical transport to mainland Australia.
In October 2017, the HRLC criticised Canstruct International for taking a $591 million Australian Government contract to run the Nauru Regional Processing Centre. HRLC said Canstruct was taking up a "poisoned chalice" and that it would be "complicit" in an "internationally abusive system", that there was no ethical way for it to be involved. Keren Adams from the HRLC said “It is particularly appalling that the contract has been awarded to an engineering company with zero experience dealing with vulnerable people [...] Canstruct is an engineering company with a background building bridges. In accepting this contract, it will be taking the job of running a cruel, open-air prison detaining people, including many children, who are deeply traumatised.”
In January 2019, the HRLC criticised the Coalition Government of Scott Morrison for their plans to pass laws expanding powers of the Home Affairs Department (at the time headed by Peter Dutton) to strip Australians of their citizenship. The HRLC argued that expanding this power would risk making people stateless for minor crimes. Emily Howie warned "If Parliament passes this bill, we could see people banished to countries they’ve never even visited for crimes that were not even serious enough for a court to impose a prison sentence,"
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