Australia's National Human Rights Action Plan
December 2011: The exposure draft of Australia’s new National Human Rights Action Plan has been released.
In his announcement the Attorney General Robert McClelland commented that the Action Plan reflects work that Australian Governments are doing to address the community’s human rights concerns, and reinforces the commitment of Governments to the human rights of disadvantaged groups including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, older people and people with disability.
Among the new actions proposed by the Plan are:
- a review of Australia’s reservations under human rights treaties
- working to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture
- a review of federal legislation for barriers to older people participating in productive work.
- investigating ways that the justice system can better address mental illness and cognitive disability
- conducting research into rates of imprisonment with a focus on vulnerable groups and alternative sentencing options, and
- Working to provide accessible communications for people with disability in the event of an emergency.
The draft National Human Rights Action Plan was informed by a Baseline Study, an assessment of Australia’s human rights issues and the efforts to address them.
Consultations on the draft Action Plan close on 29 February 2012.
Further information about the National Human Rights Action Plan is available at www.ag.gov.au/nhrap .
Background
The Human Rights Law Centre has created a fantastic human rights action plan website to provide NGOs with information about the National Action Plan process, and generate ideas for submissions to the Government's formal consultation process.
Thanks to Human Rights Law Centre you can view a range of organisation's submissions and comments on the Draft Baseline Study. ERA's submission are available for download below.
The reports from the Human Rights Law Centre's NGO workshops are also now available. The workshops aimed to raise awareness of the NAP process but in the process also collected feedback from NGO’s on the Draft Baseline Study and developed ideas for potential actions to be included in the eventual National Human Rights Action Plan. Specific workshops were held for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and those representing the interests of people with disabilities.
Further Reading
Comments
Exposure draft of National Human Rights Action Plan released
Attorney-General, Robert McClelland has released an exposure draft of Australia’s new National Human Rights Action Plan.
In his announcement the Attorney General commented that the Action Plan reflects work that Australian Governments are doing to address the community’s human rights concerns, and reinforces the commitment of Governments to the human rights of disadvantaged groups including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, older people and people with disability.
Among the new actions proposed by the Plan are:
The draft National Human Rights Action Plan was informed by a Baseline Study, an assessment of Australia’s human rights issues and the efforts to address them.
Consultations on the draft Action Plan close on 29 February 2012.
Further information about the National Human Rights Action Plan is available at www.ag.gov.au/nhrap.
National Human Rights Action - view ERA submissions!
We've re-jigged some content on our website to give prominance to our submissions on the draft Baseline Study for the Australia's National Human Rights Action Plan. Follow the link to our website to read more!