HSC Legal Studies: News Watch - Human Rights

Victim Support Scheme - new legislation

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:46:49 +1000

Victims of crime in NSW have been eligible for compensation under the Victim's Compensation Scheme. New legislation that has been introduced into Parliament will abolish this scheme and replace it with the Victim Support Scheme.

The Victims Rights and Support Bill 2013 was introduced into the Legislative Council on 7th May 2013. The Attorney-General commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to review the victim compensation scheme and give an independent assessment of how it could be improved to provide faster and more effective support to victims of violent crime. This Bill has been drafted in response to the report's findings, although the report has not been made public.

A coalition of thirty community legal centres have made a complaint to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences on the grounds that this new legislation will discriminate against women. You can read about this in "'Arbitrary and brutal' NSW compensation changes spark UN complaint" by Anna Patty and Harriet Alexander, SMH, 21 May 2013.

The Community Legal Centres have made their objections public - see Changes to the NSW Victims Compensation Scheme - Issues of concern, 13 May 2013 in which they detail their key objections:

transparent and adequate consultation required
retrospectivity must be reversed
there should be no upper time limits imposed on recognition payments for victims of domestic violence, child abuse or sexual assault
recognition payment required for victims of domestic violence
documentary evidence include reports by a support service.

The introduction of this new Bill is an example of how laws can be changed without wide public consultation and without including the existing Victim's Compensation Scheme and its Tribunal. The Tribunal has published its Annual Report 2011-2012 and notes that it had not been consulted on this change.

Interestingly, the University of NSW is conducting a survey at the moment into victim participation in the court process. They hope to learn about victim experiences’ with the NSW criminal justice system and to identify how service delivery can be improved in NSW to better assist victims of crime. See Victim Survey.

Responsibility to Protect and Syria

Mon, 06 May 2013 12:29:56 +1000

'In 2005 in the United Nations General Assembly hall, heads of government from Russia to South Africa, China to the United States solemnly swore they would never again be passive bystanders when faced with war crimes and crimes against humanity.'

Jan Engeland, Deputy Executive Director of Human Rights Watch.

Source: 'Time for Brics to stop sitting on the fence over Syria atrocities', 22 March 2013, Human Rights Watch.

According to the latest estimates, close to 70,000 have died in Syria, with more than 4 million Syrians needing humanitarian assistance, 2 million internally displaced and another 1.5 million refugees outside the country and this has happened since the start of the armed conflict in 2011 when the population of Syria was roughly 23 million. Does the UN doctrine of the 'responsibility to protect' apply to this conflict in Syria?

This question is worth considering. The following media reports discuss this question:

'Endless harvest of misery heralds new world disorder' by Timothy Garton Ash, SMH, 27 April 2013
'Be a neighbouring nation’s keeper, spill more blood' by Nicholas Stuart, Canberra Times, 27 April 2013

To read more about the conflict in Syria and the response of the international community, Human Rights Watch have written extensively:

Human Rights in Syria – you will find links to YouTube clips and media reports outlining and discussing the impact on the conflict on the Syrian people
World Report 2013 – Syria – Human Rights Watch

For more information, use the following Research Guides:

HSC Legal Studies: World Order has links to invaluable information on the nature of world order, the nature of conflict, international humanitarian law and responses to world order by the United Nations and other organisations. You will find links to magazine articles that will be helpful if you are studying this topic.
HSC Legal Studies – World Order – Responsibility to Protect – R2P – you will find definitions of R2P, links to magazine articles and two cases studies focusing on Libya and Syria.

Privacy Awareness Week 2013

Mon, 06 May 2013 09:13:34 +1000

Last week was Privacy Awareness Week. The NSW Information and Privacy Commission launched a new video about privacy in which they hit the streets of Sydney to find out what privacy means to members of the community. They discovered that privacy is a keen concern for many people, who are more conscious than ever of the need to protect their personal information.

What do you think about privacy? Watch this video this week. Each day you will find a new cartoon on the Privacy Awareness Week 2013 website depicting the lighter side of privacy. They raise different issues in a humorous way.

Spend time looking at the online privacy guides they have prepared for parents, teenagers, children and teachers.

Privacy has been discussed in the media recently in some opinion pieces. In the aftermath of the bombing attack that took place in Boston, it is worth considering the right to privacy v public safety and national security benefits. What do you think about this issue?

“Boston tells us not to be blind to CCTV’s uses” by Anthony Bergin, SMH, 29 April 2013
“Invasion of privacy for public good” by Paul Malone, SMH, 28 April 2013
“Privacy: the fix should not be left to judges” by George Williams, SMH, 26 March 2013

Privacy is a topic you can explore in depth in these parts of the Legal Studies syllabus:

For more information about privacy, browse Find Legal Answers website - privacy

Torture - revisiting September 11, 2001

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:04:34 +1000

How involved was Australia in the torture of terrorist suspects after 11 September 2001? This has been a vexed question for many in the years since - particularly when evidence came to light on the treatment of two Australians in the aftermath of the terrorist attack - David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib.

The US-based Open Society Justice Inititative have released a report that examined the CIA's torture programs and their impact on 136 known victims. Its report, Globalising Torture, found the US did not act alone - as many as 54 nations also took part. Australia, while not as directly involved as other nations, bears some responsibility. To understand this report, see:

summary of the report, and in particular pages 41 and 66 of the report (it is quite long)
'Come clean on role we played in abetting torture' by George Williams, SMH, 22 April 2013
Hot Topics 58: Terrorism, LIAC, 2007 - contains case studies on both Mamdouh Habib (page 12) and David Hicks (page 14)

The Australian Law Dictionary has a useful definition of torture. If you have a State Library card, you will find more extensive information in the Encyclopedia of Human Rights. Type in torture. The International convention dealing with torture is the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, New York, 10 December 1984

The following magazine articles are available on Informit Online - Law (if you have a State Library card):

'When America changed forever - Guantanamo and torture: human rights ten years after 9/11' by Andrew Worthington (2011) 204 (Spring) Overland 83-88
'An individual's rights are part of the national interest too' by Anne Susskind (2012) 50 (10) Law Society Journal 28-31.

You will find numerous other articles. Type in torture and habib or torture and hicks. You might also want to look at our research guide HSC Legal Studies: Human Rights - Terrorism

Forced marriage

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:26:41 +1000

The Australian Institute of Criminology has released a new paper: Forced and servile marriage in the context of human trafficking, Research in practice No 32, March 2013. We have discussed the new legislation passed by the Federal Government which criminalises forced marriages in a recent blog post.

This paper highlights the lack of research into the incidence of forced marriages, however, what research has been done demonstrates that marriage and partner migration have been used to traffic people into Australia in a small number of cases.

Marriage has been used as a method of recruiting or receiving women into Australia by means of deceiving the women about the nature of the marriage and the condition of their married lives for the purpose of exploitation as domestic servants and wives.

'Forced marriages and human rights' by Simona Kljun (2012) 34 (5) Bulletin (Law Society of SA) 8
'The pros and cons of criminalisation of forced marriage' by Aisha Gill (2012) Newsletter 49 (Winter) Australian Domestic & Family Violence Clearinghouse 8 - scroll down to page 9.

You will find other articles on Informit Online - Law. Type in forced marriage. For more information see our Research guide - Human trafficking and sexual slavery.

marriage has been used as a method of recruiting or

receiving women into Australia by means of deceiving

the women about the nature of the marriage and

Community legal centres and law reform

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:04:50 +1000

An often overlooked aspect of the work of Community Legal Centres is their activities in law reform to redress systemic issues around unfair or discriminatory laws and policies. The benefits of law reform are usually not seen immediately but rather have long-term positive consequences. This perceived lack of immediate benefit, means that many in the community, including governments, do not always place a high value on law reform.

Law reform activities come in many forms. They can include lobbying, running public campaigns, distributing materials, and meetings with individuals and communities, including MPs, other government stakeholders, and those who identify as activists and lobbyists.

From the Editorial in: On the Record, Community Legal Centre's E-Newsletter Number 22, titled 'Community Legal Centres: Community, Compassion, Justice'. This is an invaluable resource for students investigating law reform and law reform in action. The whole issue is relevant, but you could choose from the following articles:

Funding principles will restrict the work of CLCs
NSW Planning reforms: a whiter shade of green? (Note: you will need to scroll down through the issue to find this article)
Boarding house reforms
Advocating for law reform - transsexual children, their rights, identity and welfare
Pay day lending - a law reform saga
EDO calls for mining laws to be more ecologically sustainable
Direct discrimination against Murrays - case study of Federal Court decision of Harakson v Murrays Australia Ltd (No 2) [2013] FCA 217, 14 March 2013 in which the Federal Court has ruled on wheelchair user Julia Haraksin’s three-year battle to have bus company Murrays Australia Ltd comply with National Disability Standards.

For more information about law reform, you can browse the following:

our research guide HSC Legal Studies:Preliminary Part I - Law Reform and Law Reform in Action and
Community Legal Centres on law reform

Right to silence - new law

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 16:44:54 +1000

A new Bill was introduced into the NSW Parliament on 13th March 2013 by the Attorney-General Greg Smith that is targeted at seeking information in the first stages of an investigation from a suspect during police questioning and will apply to serious indictable offences.

The Bill will allow an unfavourable inference to be drawn against certain accused persons who refuse to cooperate with the police during official questioning and who later seek to rely on a fact in their defence at trial that they could reasonably have mentioned during this questioning. See Evidence Amendment (Evidence of Silence) Bill 2013. You might want to read the second reading speech for more details. The Bill does specifically exclude children and other people who are incapable of understanding the consequences of remaining silent are exempt from the provisions.

This Bill has been introduced partly in response to Police frustration in the 'wall of silence' with many witnesses refusing to speak about the incidents, particularly after a number of drive by shooting incidents in Sydney in late 2011 and early 2012. For more details about the issue of the right to silence, particularly in relation to drive by shootings and shootings in public places see following research guides:

Note: both these guides are identical.

Disability discrimination - twenty years: twenty stories

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:09:13 +1000

1st March 2013 marked the twentieth anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth). The Australian Human Rights Commission, in partnership with the Sydney Community Foundation, have made twenty films showing how people have used this law to change their lives, and the lives of others.

"Going to school, catching a bus, watching a movie or entering a building are things we do every day. But some of us have had to fight hard to be able to do them, Commissioner Innes said.

The Disability Discrimination Act provides Australians with disability - and their relatives or associates - with the chance to pursue a complaint if they are treated less favourably than other people in a range of areas of public life.

The purpose of these twenty short films is to show that the biggest barrier Australians with a disability face, is not disability itself but negative attitudes towards disability. They illustrate that people with disability can make rich contributions to society if barriers in our schools, universities, buildings and retail stores are removed." See media release of the Australian Human Rights Commission.

You will find these films here. They would be worth watching to see the impact that this legislation had on the lives of many.

There is a useful timeline of events: 20 years of the Disability Discrimination Act. The timeline begins with the 1970s and traces the development of this important legislation for people with a disability.

Source of photo: Flickr: Australian HumanRights. The Attorney-General Quentin Bryce launched this series of films. For other photographs of this event see Twenty years: twenty stories on Flickr.

Slavery, slavery-like conditions and people trafficking and forced marriage law passed

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:07:21 +1000

The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Slavery, Slavery-like Conditions and People Trafficking) Bill 2012 passed both houses of the Australian Parliament on 27 February 2013. This new legislation will criminalise forced marriage, forced labour, and people and organ trafficking.

"Marriage should be a happy occasion, not one that is entered into by force. Sadly there are people in Australia, and Australians overseas, who have been coerced, threatened or deceived into marriage," said Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.

"There will now be a maximum penalty of seven years jail for anyone trying to force vulnerable people into marriage.

"Not surprisingly, people forced into marriage may be too afraid to come forward. We urge people to speak up so the community can come to grips with the full extent of this criminal activity."

The laws also include a new standalone forced labour offence, which means that labour exploitation can be prosecuted wherever it occurs, including where the victim is not moved across a border. Previously, forced labour was only criminalised where it was connected to the offence of people trafficking.

"Law enforcement agencies have found increasing numbers of people are being exploited in sectors other than the sex industry where a great deal of trafficking occurs," said Mr Dreyfus.

The amendments to the Commonwealth Criminal Code, under the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Slavery, Slavery-like Conditions and People Trafficking) Bill, will ensure all forms of exploitation are addressed, including by:

establishing new offences of forced marriage and harbouring a victim, and standalone offences of forced labour and organ trafficking;
broadening the existing offences of sexual servitude and deceptive recruiting for sexual services to apply to all forms of servitude and deceptive recruiting, regardless of industry;
ensuring those who help third persons commit people trafficking, slavery or slavery-like offences can be charged as well as the primary perpetrators of those crimes; and
increasing the penalties for existing debt bondage offences.

The new offences reflect the Government's commitment to ensuring Australia fulfils its legislative obligations under the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. Source: Attorney-General's media release.

If you are interested in this topic, you can read more on our Research Guide - Human Rights - Human trafficking and sexual slavery.

Act of recognition

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:16:12 +1000

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People’s Recognition Bill 2012 has passed the Federal House of Representatives. This Bill was introduced into the Parliament in November 2012 and is the first step towards a referendum to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Constitution.

On the fifth anniversary of the national apology to members of the stolen generation - 14 February 2013, this Bill received cross party support. The Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda had urged this cross party support in a media release the day before the Bill was read in Parliament for the second time.

According to Gooda 'the great potential of constitutional recognition should not be underestimated. It can serve as a vehicle to increase and improve our resilience, self-worth, relationship with the broader Australian community and relationship with governments. Importantly, this recognition will be of great benefit to the Australian nation as a whole in coming to terms with our past in such a positive manner.' See media release, 13 February 2013.

Want to find out more?

Recognise – a website supporting the move to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia’s Constitution. You can register your support, receive a newsletter and keep up to date with this campaign to change the Constitution.
Reconciliation Australia – building relationships for change between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians
Research Guide – Law Reform in Action - Constitutional reform

Media reports

'After apology comes recognition' by Michael Gordon, SMH, 14 February 2013
'Constitution needs to include Australia’s first chapter' by Aden Ridgeway, The Age, 14 February 2013
'Abbott puts aside pugilism to set a new moral course' by Katharine Murphy, SMH, 18 February 2013