Legal experts unite in push for an NSW Human Rights Act

The University of Sydney Law School, together with the NSW Bar Association and the Human Rights Act for NSW (HRA4NSW) alliance, recently hosted a public lecture on how a NSW Human Rights Act would make a difference in people’s lives and why state-based Human Rights legislation is needed.

The lecture was attended by some of the brightest legal minds in the state.

Former Justice of the High Court of Australia, the Honourable Michael Kirby AC CMG delivered the keynote address. Hugh de Kretser, President of the Australian Human Rights Commission also delivered an address, followed by a panel discussion featuring the speakers and Trent Glover SC, Chair of the NSW Bar Association’s Human Rights Committee and barrister Carmel Lee, for the Human Rights Act for NSW Alliance. The panel was moderated by the president of the NSW Bar Association, Dr Ruth Higgins SC.

Kerry Weste, Immediate Past President of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) points out that “Human Rights Acts have already been passed in the Australian Capital Territory (2004), Victoria (2006) and Queensland (2019).

“Every day these laws are benefitting people in concrete ways in relation to issues like housing, education, access to healthcare and much more. It’s time for NSW to begin a conversation about ensuring that the people of this state receive at least the same level of protection for their human rights,” she says.

She also believes that “significant momentum for legislative protection of human rights across Australia has been building. …”

Lydia Shelly, President of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties says “[a] NSW Human Rights Act would create a legislated framework that articulates and protects human rights for everyone in NSW based on Australia’s international legal obligations under core United Nations treaties like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

“It would significantly improve the way our parliament, government and public entities develop laws, policies and make decisions. It would also create accessible pathways that everyone in NSW can use to take action for a solution if their human rights are breached…,” she says.

A NSW Human Rights Act may extend to protect a number of rights including recognition and equality before the law, right to life, privacy and reputation, cultural rights, humane treatment when deprived of liberty and many more.

Human Rights Act for NSW Alliance, an alliance of over 47 civil society and community organisations, is calling on the NSW Government to establish an inquiry into a Human Rights Act. Weste tells LSJ this would “give everyone in our state a chance to be a part of the conversation about what an ideal Human Rights Act looks like… .”

Weste says a parliamentary committee in South Australia is currently examining the potential for a Human Rights Act there.

“Now is the perfect time to begin this conversation in NSW. We’ve got the benefit of the legislation already enacted in Queensland, the ACT and Victoria … We’ve also got the Human Rights Acts in the UK, Canada and New Zealand from which to draw. …,” she says.

Weste says a Human Rights Act for NSW would ensure laws that limit human rights are thoroughly scrutinised, to ensure they “achieve a legitimate purpose and don’t limit a right beyond what is necessary to achieve that … purpose…”

“Indeed, Australia is the only western democracy without a bill of rights or human rights act at the national level, leaving the people of NSW some of the only citizens in the democratic world who live without the legal protection of their human rights,” she says.

In terms of a framework and legal process to resolve complaints, Weste says that the emphasis is not necessarily on penalties in human rights legislation however “there are no rights without remedy,” she says. “A Human Rights Act for NSW, just as those enacted in other jurisdictions in Australia should provide accessible complaints mechanisms. People who believe that their human rights have been breached should be able to take action to achieve a just solution,” she says.

“[I]t is essential that our courts can consider human rights and build a body of Australian human rights jurisprudence.”