Right now, Australia doesn’t have a federal law that protects everyone's fundamental human rights.
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 15: An inflatable planet earth is bounced around the crowd during a Climate Change Awareness rally at Sydney Town Hall on March 15, 2019 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Don Arnold/Getty Images)
Human rights are the fundamental freedoms and protections that belong to all of us, and Australia’s current laws are failing to prevent human rights abuses.
Australia is the only liberal democracy in the world without a Human Rights Act that protects human rights in law.
If you or someone you love suffers a human rights abuse, there’s not much you can do to hold those responsible to account, and there are few legal remedies available. Because of this, powerful people continue to abuse human rights.
Australia has Anti-Discrimination laws, but these only protect people’s right to live free from discrimination on the basis of their age, sex, disability, or race.
These laws don’t protect all our rights, including our right to access healthcare, to an education, to a healthy environment, and the rights of children.
You can complain about an abuse to the Australian Human Rights Commission, and they can investigate.
If that complaint isn’t resolved through a conciliation process, then complaints about discrimination may be taken to court under the Anti-Discrimination Acts. If your complaint involves a right that’s not the right to live free from discrimination, there’s nothing more you can do.
This system is fundamentally flawed, and is failing to prevent human rights abuses from happening.
A Human Rights Act is a tool with which we can fight for the fundamental rights and freedoms that belong to all of us, and hold those in power to account.
It would mean the rights of all Australians are protected in our laws, and force the federal government to consider those rights in their laws, policies and practices.
A Human Rights Act will:
With a Human Rights Act, we can create better lives for ourselves, our communities, and for those around us.
The ACT, Victoria, and Queensland have their own state-based Human Rights Acts. They’re a good guide for a federal Human Rights Act, and show us how people can use one to challenge injustice and human rights abuses.
Our friends at the Charter of Rights coalition have compiled 101 cases that illustrate how ordinary people have used these laws as a tool to make concrete improvements to their lives.
But without a national Human Rights Act, there is nothing enshrined in law that protects the rights of everyone in Australia.
The housing crisis, robodebt, a broken aged care system. Australia needs a Human Rights Act that protects human rights in law.
Our right to housing isn’t protected in our national laws. That means if you or your family are threatened with unfair eviction, there’s not a lot you can do.
If we had an enforceable right to housing embedded in our laws, we could challenge forced evictions to ensure nobody is left out in the cold.
Nearly 450,000 robo-debts were issued by the Morrison government. Everyday Australians were harassed, paying thousands of dollars under a policy that was never lawful.
If we had a Human Rights Act, the government would have been forced to consider people’s human rights before rolling out robodebt.
The horrifying findings of the Aged Care Royal Commission, laid bare the abuses so many older people face. Abuse and neglect. Sexual abuse. The use of chemical restraints.
The recommendation was a new aged care system, based on human rights. But how do you create this system, when our human rights are not even protected in our laws?
In 2021, the Morrison government proposed the Religious Discrimination Bill supposedly protecting religious people from discrimination. In reality, it would give religious people the right to discriminate against others.
That Bill threatened LGBTQIA+ people, women, people with disabilities, and even other people of faith, and is a good example of how Australia’s patchwork of human rights protections don’t protect all our rights. Australia’s anti-discrimination laws don’t protect people from discrimination on the basis of their religious beliefs.
A Human Rights Act, by contrast, would protect people against discrimination based on their religious beliefs, but also protect the rights of LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities, and women. It would allow rights to be balanced – one group’s rights would not take priority over another.
Together, we can make Australia a place where human rights are protected, where people can challenge human rights abuses, and where there is justice for those whose rights are abused.
The good news is that, after almost a decade of inaction, we have an opportunity to ensure our human rights are protected in Australia's laws.
There is widespread support for a Human Rights Act:
The government is currently conducting an inquiry into Australia’s human rights framework. This inquiry is crucial, because it is considering whether the Parliament should legislate a Human Rights Act and protect our rights in law.
Amnesty recommends that the Federal Government develop a new National Human Rights Framework that prioritises protecting human rights in domestic law in a Human Rights Act.
Learn more about our submission and help us ensure that everyone’s rights are respected and protected.
Together, we can pressure the Australian government to adopt a Human Rights Act that forces the federal government to consider human rights.
We are really close to making a national Human Rights Act a reality.
Right now, the government is seeking the input of individuals, like you, to determine whether to legislate a Human Rights Act. A groundswell of public support is crucial in getting this over the line.
With a powerful legacy of over 60 years of human rights advocacy, a global movement of 10 million people – and 500,000 people in Australia – Amnesty International has the people power to build public support for a Human Rights Act. Our collective voices have a real opportunity to make a massive difference.
Join us in calling for a national Human Rights Act so the government is forced to put human rights first:
Ensure Australia is a place where human rights are protected, where people can challenge human rights abuses, and where there is justice for those whose rights are abused.
Do Something NowRight now we have a unique opportunity to protect the human rights of everyone in Australia - but we need your help.
