Examining the Application of Human Rights in Modern Australia

This report provides a detailed overview of applied human rights within the context of the Australian government. It begins by defining human rights as a set of legal and moral guidelines that protect and promote the recognition of human values, abilities, and identities, ensuring an acceptable standard of living. The report explores the origins of human rights, tracing them back to religious roots, natural law, and governmental concessions, highlighting their evolution through ancient civilizations and key historical events such as the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. It emphasizes that the protection of human rights relies on national rules for identification and implementation. Furthermore, the report discusses the importance of human rights within the Australian legal system, referencing the federal constitution and the division of responsibilities between state and federal governments. It outlines specific rights recognized in Australia, including the right to vote, trial by jury, protection against discrimination, fundamental freedoms, due process, equality before the law, and freedom of legislation. The report concludes by underscoring the reliance on ordinary legislation for human rights protection in Australia.

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STUDENT’S NAME
Applied Human Rights
UNIVERSITY
DATE

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1.0 Executive summary
The purpose of this report is to define the meaning of human rights, states it origin and
provide relevancy in contemporary Australian government.

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Table of Contents
2.0 Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
3.0 Meaning of human rights.....................................................................................................4
4.0 Origin of human rights.........................................................................................................4
4.1 Reasons why human rights are not a recent invention.....................................................4
5.0 Importance of human rights.................................................................................................5
6.0 References............................................................................................................................7

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2.0 Introduction
Many people have a different view of what the human rights actually mean in Australia, most
of them believe that each and every person has his own inherent dignity, value, and respect
that gives fundamental worth of a person and his or her relationship with other people. Most
of them also believe that human rights are the same to all people irrespective of age, sex,
origin or social status (Shestack, 2017).
3.0 Meaning of human rights
A set of legal and moral guidelines that protect and promote a recognition of human values,
its ability, and identity to certify an acceptable standard of living, it can also be defined as the
basic standards by which individuals can quantity and identify inequality and justice
(Howard-Hassmann, 2018).
4.0 Origin of human rights
Australians also have a different view on the understanding the origin of human rights, some
of the points on the religious roots, others believe the natural law could have been the source
whereas others merely take it to be a stiff accomplished concessions from the government or
the state.
4.1 Reasons why human rights are not a recent invention
Ideas concerning the human rights may be traced back to very many years ago to values
established from the knowledge of world’s main religions and some developments from an
ancient civilization. Ideas about democracy and justice were very important Roman and
Greek societies giving people their political rights and freedom in choosing their leaders
(Osler & Starkey, 2017).
Important advancement in human rights transpires in 18 century alongside the emerging
national characters and the locale of revolution. The American Declaration of Independence

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(1776) was constructed on the understanding of specific human rights like life, happiness
pursuits and liberty were rudiments to every individual.
The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789) defied the sovereignty of
aristocracy and recognized the equality, fraternity, and liberty of individuals, the same values
were echoed in the United States’ Bill of rights (1879) that values the freedom of speech,
religion, constitution of press, religion and also the liberty of peaceful assembly, fair trial and
private property.
Regardless of this, it is crucial to know the issue of collective developments, and the
recognition of the above rights was granted to every nation to work on it independently, in
other words, the enjoyment and the protection of human rights rely on the national rule to
identify and implement.
5.0 Importance of human rights
I will start by introducing the federal constitution which is the basis of the Australian
government legal systems, and it contains all the pool of human rights. The constitution of
Australia is divided into spheres of judicial, legislative and the executive responsibility
between the states and the Commonwealth of Australia (Taylor, 2017).
Both state governments and the federal are responsible for protecting the human rights and
may also incorporate the principles of international human rights.
The Australian government has relied too much on the ordinary legislation somewhat than
the laid down constitutional rights. This means minimal rights are explicitly recognized by
the constitution, according to the record this is the importance of rights stated out.
i. Right to vote which gives people an opportunity to select their own leaders
ii. The right to trial by jury- it states out the location of the alleged offense (section 80 )

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iii. The protection against discrimination in respect to the state of placement (section 117)
iv. Fundamental freedom , like the freedom of movement, freedom of association, freedom
of diplomatic assembly, freedom of thought, opinion and belief or the liberty of detention or
arbitrary arrest.
v. The right of due process or fair trial
vi. Equality of all individuals in Australia before the law
vii. The Freedom of legislation.

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6.0 References
Howard-Hassmann, R.E., 2018. Human rights and the search for community. Routledge.
Osler, A. and Starkey, H., 2017. Teacher education and human rights. Routledge.
Shestack, J.J., 2017. The philosophic foundations of human rights. In Human Rights (pp. 3-
36). Routledge.
Taylor, G., 2017. The judicial incompatibility clause-or, how a version of the'Kable'principle
nearly made it into the federal constitution. Adelaide Law Review, The, 38(2), p.351.