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News: Australia's human rights performance on show at the UN
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- Category: Upholding Human Rights
- Published on Friday, 04 February 2011 15:10
- Written by Jennifer
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NEWS
Australia's human rights performance on show at the UN
4 February 2011
Australia’s human rights performance was recently put under scrutiny at a new United Nations Human Rights Council process known as the Universal Periodic Review.
The UPR process is an interactive one whereby other countries make recommendations on how to improve human rights. The government of each country appearing before the Review is then required to formally respond by accepting or rejecting the recommendations. By doing so, a member country effectively make a series of pledges and commitments for the next four years.
During its Universal Periodic Review, the Australian Government also announced a number of new commitments in the area of human rights, including funding for the Australian Human Rights Commission for stand-alone Race and Disability Discrimination Commissioners (both roles are currently performed by one Commissioner). Many countries congratulated Australia on the leadership role it has played in the development of international human rights standards and institutions. Recent Government commitments to strengthen human rights through the Human Rights Framework, including through a proposed Joint Parliamentary Committee which will scrutinise Australian law against human rights standards, were also applauded.
145 recommendations were made to improve human rights protections in Australia, amongst them addressing racism, the rights of Indigenous people, introducing a Human Rights Act and overturning the mandatory detention of asylum seekers. You can read the full list of recommendations in the draft report here.
The Australian Government has committed to responding to the recommendations to come from the UPR in due course and to use the outcomes from this process to inform the development of the National Human Rights Action Plan (another initiative which forms part of the Human Rights Framework).
UnitingJustice has written to the Attorney-General welcoming the appointment of a stand-alone Race Discrimination Commissioner, and will continue our advocacy on many of the human rights problems identified in the UPR process.
We also prepared a submission responding to the National Human Rights Action Plan Background Paper, the first stage of the process in developing the Plan. This can be downloaded here (pdf)