WHAT ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
All South Australians have human rights. They are universal, meaning they are for everyone, everywhere, all of the time. Human rights legally articulate the values that we hold most dear, like freedom, equality, dignity, and work as a tool that we can use to protect our safety and quality of life. They belong to all of us from birth until death, no matter our race, gender, religion, abilities, political beliefs, sexuality, age or any other characteristic.
They include well known rights such as:
- protection from discrimination
- protection from torture, cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment
- the right to a fair trial
- the right to vote
- freedom of speech, movement and assembly
- protection from arbitrary imprisonment
- the right to an education
- the right to health
- the right to privacy
Protecting our human rights ensures that we are treated fairly and equally with dignity and respect.
WHAT IS A HUMAN RIGHTS ACT?
A Human Rights Act for South Australia would articulate and protect everyone’s human rights. It would create a comprehensive legislated framework that consolidates our current selective and piecemeal approach to the protection of human rights in SA. Currently many of our basic rights and freedoms are not protected by the laws of our state. A Human Rights Act for South Australia could address this by providing legal recognition of the basic rights and freedoms that SA must protect under international law. It would significantly improve the way our SA parliament, the government and public entities like local councils, the police, schools and state government agencies develop laws, policies and make decisions. It could also create accessible pathways that we can all use to take action if our human rights are breached.
Human rights legislation has already been passed in the Australian Capital Territory (2004), Victoria (2006) and Queensland (2019). These Acts provide protection for most civil and political rights and cultural rights, and some protection of economic and social rights. Most of these rights are based on rights protected by international treaties to which Australia is party, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
A Human Rights Act for SA, like the existing human rights legislation in other jurisdictions, could be based on a ‘dialogue model’. The dialogue model seeks to create a culture of human rights awareness within and between the three arms of government (Parliament, Executive and Courts) and places obligations on each arm to protect and promote human rights.
The key objects of a Human Rights Act would be to:
- Protect and promote human rights and help to create a fair, just and equal society for everyone in South Australia.
- Require parliament and the SA Government and other public authorities to consider how laws, policies and the delivery of services impact on our human rights.
- Provide people whose human rights have been breached with accessible remedies.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF A HUMAN RIGHTS ACT?
A Human Rights Act would provide meaningful and tangible benefits to everyone in South Australia. In particular, a Human Rights Act benefit all South Aussies by establishing a framework that could:
- Require Parliament to consider our human rights when passing and amending legislation;
- Require public entities, such as state government departments, local councils, state schools, the police and all organisations performing a public function in SA to act compatibly with our human rights; .
- Enable SA courts and tribunals to interpret legislation consistently with human rights and empower them tell our government and parliament if they find that a law breaches human rights.
- Provide accessible pathways that everyone in SA can use to make a complaint and seek a solution if their human rights are breached.
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