UN gives Australia 1 year to fix human rights
Lawyers Weekly is reporting that the UN has given Australia a year’s deadline to fix outstanding human rights issues and live up to its international obligations on human rights with respect to with respect to the Northern Territory Intervention, mandatory immigration detention, anti-terrorism laws, and violence against women.
The Australian judiciary also came under fire in the report for making little reference to international human rights law, including the Covenant. Phil Lynch, director of the International Human Rights Law Resource Centre said this state of affairs was a reflection of the nation’s wider shortfallings in the areas of human rights education and policy.
“It is, of course, partly a function of human rights not being a core aspect of legal training and education,” said Lynch, “but also in part a function of not having comprehensive national human rights legislation in the way that comparative jurisdictions such as New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom do.”
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