Press Release – 28 August 2008
More than 50 organisations from across the country and different sectors
today called for the Federal Government to engage the country in a public
consultation on human rights protection.
The Australian Human Rights Group has sent an open letter to the Prime
Minister and the Attorney General calling for open, fair and public consultation
on the protection of human rights.
The letter was endorsed by more than 50 organisations and a number of
prominent Australians.“Many countries with a shared history and similar
values to Australia, including the United Kingdom and New Zealand, have
improved their legislative human rights protection in a way that has enhanced
basic democratic values, improved public policy and services and
maintained Parliament’s sovereignty,” AHRG chair Susan Ryan AO said.
Australia is the only democratic country in the world devoid of a national
human rights law.“We welcome the Government’s commitment to
consultation on the recognition and protection of rights in Australia,
especially as the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights is approaching on December 10, but want to ensure the process is
democratic and inclusive of marginalised and disadvantaged Australians,”
she said. Ms Ryan said the consultative process should be inherently
democratic and enable Australians to decide how best their rights should
be protected.“The consultation should be an opportunity for us all to
articulate our beliefs and values, to consider who we are as a nation and
what we aspire to be. It would be a chance to bring our rights home,”
campaign director Phoebe Knowles said.
AHRG is a non-political network of individuals and organisations
committed to enhancing legal protection of human rights in Australia by
encouraging community consultation and the drafting of a human rights
law.
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