This page points to Australian and overseas human rights statements and legislation - in particular that regarding anti-discrimination - as background to our discussion of online Accessibility, Privacy, politics and Hate Speech, and debate about free speech and Censorship.

It also highlights some of the general literature on human rights law. Reports and academic studies of particular legislation are identified in the guides.

     this profile

The following pages cover -

principles - wiriting about human rights principles and anti-discrimination legislation in Australia and overseas

legislation - Federal, state/territory and overseas anti-discrimination legislation and international conventions

watchdogs - Australian and overseas anti-discrimination bodies

chronology - a brief timeline of human rights developments in Australia and New Zealand, particularly anti-discrimination reports and legislation

     orientation

The Australian Constitution, very much a product of its time, says very little about human rights and when adopted in 1901 did not explicitly address questions of discrimination relating to gender, ethnicity, disability or economic circumstances.

In contrast to many countries - for example New Zealand, with the Bill of Rights Act 1990 (here) - Australia also does not have a Bill of Rights. Recurrent proposals for such a Bill or a Charter of Rights have gained little support.

The High Court, final interpreter of the Constitution, has traditionally been reluctant to concern itself with human rights issues. However, since the early 1990s it has indicated that it is prepared to develop the common law relating to human rights.

Examples are the 1992 decision in Australian Capital Television v Commonwealth that in determining an implied right to free political speech provides a basis for exploration of whether other human rights are implied in the Constitution and the 2001 Lenah v ABC decision regarding privacy.

Federal and state legislatures have been more active, although development of anti-discrimination legislation across the individual states has been quite uneven. As the the following pages of this profile suggest, legislative change has concentrated on three areas -

• recognition that Indigenous people in Australia are citizens and should not suffer discrimination regarding participation in the census and franchise
  
  
• anticipation and adoption of international instruments such as the Convention concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment & Occupation through legislation such as the South Australian Prohibition of Discrimination Act 1966 and Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act 1984
  
  
• extension through enactments such as the NSW Anti-Discrimination (Homosexual Vilification) Amendment Act 1993 and Commonwealth Racial Hatred Act 1995 to address vilification.

There's been little specific attention to the internet. The landmark probably remains SOCOG's fine of $20,000 after ignoring the adverse ruling by the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) in Maguire v SOCOG, the landmark 'online accessibility' case under the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act.  

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