Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) is alarmed by reports on ABC News that a transgender woman was jailed and sent to Hobart’s Risdon Prison only then to be allegedly raped by other prisoners. The woman, Marjorie Harwood, has since died from kidney disease. ALHR LGBTI Subcommittee Co-Chair, Georgia Burke said: “The Tasmanian Prison Service … Read More >>
Human rights lawyers have raised concerns about proposed amendments to the Defence Act which will make it easier for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to be called out onto Australian streets and increase the ADF’s powers when responding to such a call out. The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee (Committee) is currently considering the … Read More >>
ALHR has made a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee (Committee) on the Defence Amendment (Call out of the Australian Defence Force) Bill 2018. The Bill will amend Part IIIAAA of the Defence Act 1903 and follows the inquest into the Lindt Café Siege, which found that existing arrangements for ADF call … Read More >>
ALHR has written to the Victorian Attorney-General to express its concern at the Justice Legislation Miscellaneous Amendment Bill 2018 which will elevate injury offences against on-duty emergency workers, custodial officers and youth justice custodial workers (exposed workers) to Category 1 offences that are subject to a mandatory minimum custodial sentence or other custodial order, and to narrow … Read More >>
Leading human rights lawyers have expressed alarm at the continued forced sterilisation of women and girls with disabilities in Australia. Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) says concerns raised this week by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in its report on Australia should shock governments into action. Susan Peukert, Chair … Read More >>
ALHR has made a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee in response to the Commonwealth Modern Slavery Bill 2018. ALHR welcomes the introduction of the Bill into Parliament. It is an important legislative step in requiring businesses to take responsibility for human rights by engaging in a ‘race to the top’ to … Read More >>
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) has welcomed recommendations released by the Palaszczuk Government this week in the Queensland Law Reform Commission (QLRC) report on the review of termination of pregnancy laws in Queensland. ALHR President Kerry Weste said, “ALHR strongly supports the recommendations of the QLRC to reform pregnancy termination laws in Queensland, decriminalise … Read More >>
IMAGE: Peter Boyle, Facebook To mark NAIDOC Week, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) acknowledges, recognises and celebrates the role that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women play in the community, not only in the past but also in the future, at a local, state and national level. Jo Byrne, Co-Chair of ALHR’s Indigenous Rights … Read More >>
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) is calling for the immediate scrapping of the Australian government’s current offshore processing policy, on its shameful fifth anniversary on July 19. The policy has seen the forcible detention of people seeking asylum in Australia in detention facilities in Papua New Guinea and Nauru with many of these asylum … Read More >>
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) has called for the immediate closure of “Real Bodies – The Exhibition” currently showing at the Entertainment Quarter in Sydney until October 2018. The Exhibition features human corpses and human organs from unclaimed bodies in China. ALHR, doctors and other civil society groups have expressed ethical, legal and … Read More >>
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) welcomes the introduction of the Modern Slavery Bill into Parliament. The Bill requires certain large business entities with a consolidated revenue of $100m or more per year to report annually on the steps they have taken to identify and prevent risks of modern slavery in their supply chains. Around … Read More >>
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) is seeking expressions of interest from experienced lawyers to Co-Chair our National Women and Girls’ Rights Subcommittee. There are still many areas in Australian society in which women and girls experience unequal treatment and violations of their internationally recognised human rights. As such this area is a critical focus … Read More >>
