Advancing Human Rights in Australia: Challenges and Gaps

This article discusses the challenges and gaps in advancing human rights in Australia, with a focus on the treatment of asylum seekers. It covers historical events, legislative requirements, and current ethical issues.

Running head: Advancing Human Rights
Advancing Human Rights
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Introduction/Definition:
According to the United Nations, Human Rights comprises of a collection of rights
that can be considered as inherent for every human being, irregard to their sex, race,
ethnicity, nationality, religion, language or any other status. The rights includes the right to
live, right to be free from torture and slavery, independance of opinion and expression, right
to education and work, to which every individual is entitled to, without being discriminated.
The International Human Rights Law stipulates the obligations and responsibilities of the
governments to foster and safeguard the human rights. The United Nations differentiates
rights into different domains such as civil, cultural, political, social and economic rights,
which are included in the Charter of Human Rights used by the UN General Assembly UN
1945 (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations Assistance Mission in
Afghanistan, & United Nations. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2006;
Conte & Burchill, 2016; Ruggie, 2017).
Link of important historical events to current values and principles:
In 1986 (December 10th), the Australian Human Rights Commission (earlier known as
the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission) was set up (in Sydney) which acted
as the human rights watchdog in Australia. The commission offered an improved handling of
human rights related complaints and focused on research and education, and it replaced the
previous commission of human rights which was operational since 1981. The commission
comprised of three commissioners: commissioners of human rights, Sex Discrimination and
Race Discrimination Commissioner an s well as a part time president for the organization.
The statutory responsibilities of the commission were outlined under the federal laws: Racial
Discrimination Act (RDA) 1975; Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) 1984; and Human Rights
and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986. These acts allowed the commission to receive

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complaints and concerns and also monitor the performance of the nation in relation with the
international standards of human rights (humanrights.gov.au, 2018; Edelman et al., 2017).
In 1989 (January 1st), the Privacy Act 1988 was enforced, and a new position of a
Privacy Commissioner was created in the commission. The Act added 10 additional aspects
of discrimination in employment. The act provides greater control to an individual on how
their personal information is handled and used by various organizations or agencies. It
ensures that health service providers or businesses that have access to personal information of
individuals (such as credit reporting bodies, businesses selling or purchasing personal
information, contracted service providers, and other businesses that deals with personally
identifiable information) are responsible and accountable for maintaining the privacy and
security of the personal information according to the individual preferences. Such legislative
framework has allowed better privacy for individuals and prevented unauthorized use of
personal information. This also helped to improve the grounds of complaints to the
commission and thus improve reporting of human rights breaking in the nation. In 1990, the
amendment to the RDA also prevented the indirect discrimination of individuals, thereby
extending the protection against all forms of discrimination against people
(humanrights.gov.au, 2018; Catania & Lee, 2017).
In 1992, the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 was enforced along with the creation
of a new position within the commission: the Disability Discrimination Commissioner. The
act aimed to protect individuals with disabilities from all forms of discrimination and ensured
equality for them. This helped in the improvement in the conditions of individuals with
disabilities. In the following year, on 1993, another position was created within the
commission, The Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. The function of the
commissioner is to monitor and report the condition of human rights of Indigenous
Australians. Commission also ensured protection against sexual harassment and upholds the

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rights of child and preventing all types of discrimination as well as intolerance depending on
religion (humanrights.gov.au, 2018; Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014).
Current ethical and legislative requirements:
Even though a strong system of safeguarding the civil and political liberties of
individuals, Australia still has many unmet human rights challenges. Despite subsequent
pleas from the United Nations to discontinue offshore processing, the country still follows
holding asylum seekers arriving in boats to Manus Islands in Papua New Guinea and in the
island nation of Nauru, both having abysmal situation. Moreover, there is also an over
representation of the Indigenous Australians in the criminal justice system, and half of the
prisoners have disabilities. The prisoners are also subjected to violence, neglect and
prolonged periods of isolation. In Juvenile Detention centers reports of abuse have been made
along with concerns regarding overboard counter terrorism laws, which still persists
(Kenyon, 2017; Koelsch, 2017; Sundram & Ventevogel, 2017).
As of 2017, Australia held 840 asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea and 1100 in
Nauru. The refugee seekers are mostly e from Afghanistan, Burma, Iran, Pakistan, Somalia
and Sudan. Most of these asylum seekers were there for more than 4 years and many among
them are suffering or diagnosed with from mental health problems which had been made
worse due to the prolonged detention and an uncertain future. 9 refugees have also died on
Manus and Nauru (of which there have been three cases of suicide) since the introduction on
the offshore processing policy in 2013. The refugee seekers are refused meaningful scope for
local integration or adequate and safe long term settlement options. Moreover, they are
subjected to violence, harassment threats from the residents, and get limited protection from
the local authorities. The asylum seekers in Manus have also experienced increase in the
number of violent crimes and robberies from the local people, with no police action being

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taken against them. They even have to endure meaningless delays or even denial of medical
care, even in cases of life threatening situations. Authorities in Nauru have also refused
recommendations of the doctors, by preventing the transfer of almost 50 refugees to
Australia. Due to such conditions, the rates of suicide and self harm on these two places are
high, with two reported cases of suicide in 2017 (Kenyon, 2017; Koelsch, 2017; Sundram &
Ventevogel, 2017).
This shows that much development is still required within the current Legislative and
legal system in Australia, to ensure the prevention of such forms of discrimination and
uphold the human rights of the asylum seekers.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded that Australia has developed comprehensive policies in the
protection of human rights with the setup of the Human Rights Commission. However there
still remain several gaps in the system that still perpetrates inequalities towards the Asylum
seekers, which needs to be addressed.

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References:
Australian Human Rights Commission. (2014). Disability Discrimination Act 1992–For
complaints conciliated and finalised in the period of January–June 2011.
Catania, P., & Lee, T. (2017). Watching the watchman: Full federal court rejects Australian
privacy Commissioner's stance on metadata. Governance Directions, 69(3), 178.
Conte, A., & Burchill, R. (2016). Defining civil and political rights: The jurisprudence of the
United Nations Human Rights Committee. Routledge.
Edelman, B., Luca, M., & Svirsky, D. (2017). Racial discrimination in the sharing economy:
Evidence from a field experiment. American Economic Journal: Applied
Economics, 9(2), 1-22.
humanrights.gov.au (2018), History of the Commission, Retrieved on 13 June, 2018, from:
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/about/what-are-human-rights/history-commission
Kenyon, G. (2017). Illnesses of isolation: detention of asylum seekers.
Koelsch, S. (2017). A journey towards conscientisation: Motives of volunteers who support
asylum seekers, refugees and detainees.
Ruggie, J. (2017). Stabilization Clauses and Human Rights: A Research Project conducted
for IFC and the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on
Business and Human Rights (27 May 2009)< http://www. ifc.
org/wps/wcm/connect/9feb5b00488555eab8c4fa6a6515bb18/Stabilization% 2BPaper.
pdf. MOD= AJPERES> last accessed, 15.
Sundram, S., & Ventevogel, P. (2017). The mental health of refugees and asylum seekers on
Manus Island. The Lancet, 390(10112), 2534-2536.

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Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan,
& United Nations. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
(2006). Universal declaration of human rights. United Nations Assistance Mission in
Afghanistan (UNAMA), Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR).