National Human Rights Consultation - Appendix 5

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Appendix 5 –
Australian Human Rights Commission activities during the National Human Rights
Consultation

Appendix 5: Australian Human Rights Commission activities during the National Human Rights Consultation

1. The Australian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) has undertaken an
   extensive range of human rights education activities to support engagement in
   the National Human Rights Consultation (the Consultation).

1 Consultation
materials

1.1 ‘Let’s
talk about rights’ toolkit

2. To help organisations and individuals participate in the National
   Consultation process, the Commission produced a toolkit, Let's talk about
   rights, available at www.humanrights.gov.au/letstalkaboutrights/index.html and in printed form. Copies of the toolkit were distributed during Commission
   workshops and presentations, and were also sent to relevant stakeholders by
   email and post. The Commission also developed and distributed submission forms
   to make it easier for people to make a submission.

1.2 ‘Let’s
talk about rights’ for children and young people

3. The Commission developed a guide for children and young people, available at www.humanrights.gov.au/letstalkaboutrights/youth.html and in printed form. The guide explained the purpose of the Consultation, and
   how children and young people could make a submission about the human rights
   issues they felt most strongly about. Copies of the toolkit for children and
   young people were distributed during Commission workshops and presentations, and
   were sent to relevant stakeholders by email and post. The Commission also
   developed and distributed submission forms designed specifically for children
   and young people to make it easier for them to make a submission.

2 Roundtables

2.1 Australian Human
Rights Group roundtable

4. On 19 February 2009 the Commission and the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public
   Law co-hosted the second Australian Human Rights Group roundtable, held at the
   Commission. The roundtable brought together 40 key organisations and individuals
   who support a Human Rights Act for Australia to discuss approaches to the
   National Human Rights Consultation. Father Frank Brennan and Mary Kostakidis
   from the Consultation Committee addressed the roundtable during the opening
   session.

2.2 Roundtable on
constitutional issues arising from a Human Rights Act

5. On 22 April 2009 the Commission hosted a roundtable to bring together
   experts in constitutional law to discuss how a Human Right Act could avoid the
   potential constitutional difficulties identified by the Hon Michael McHugh AC QC
   in his presentation at the Commission on 5 March 2009. Participants agreed that
   it is possible to draft a Human Rights Act that retains a mechanism to notify
   Parliament if a court finds that a law is inconsistent with human rights in a
   way that is constitutionally sound. A record of what was agreed at the
   roundtable was submitted to the Consultation Committee and subsequently publicly
   released. A copy of the statement is provided in Appendix 3 of this submission.

3 National workshop
series

6. The Commission conducted a series of national workshops in each state and
   territory to support community sector engagement in the Consultation. The
   workshops included general community sector organisation workshops as well as
   some sector-specific workshops and briefing sessions with refugee groups,
   disability groups and Indigenous groups. The Commission also conducted workshops
   aimed at community legal centres and the legal profession.

7. A list of the sessions is below:

3.1 Engaging children
and young people

8. The Commission also conducted a program of workshops around the country
   aimed at youth advocates and children and young people themselves. A summary of
   the workshops for young people and/or their advocates is provided in Appendix 6.

9. In addition to specific workshops and materials, the Commission conducted a
   variety of online activities to engage children and young people in the
   Consultation. This included a Commission presence on Facebook and MySpace, and
   the facilitation of online discussion and information relevant to the
   Consultation on youth portals such as Heywire (http://blogs.abc.net.au/heywire) and
   JustAct (http://www.justact.org.au/action-35-realise-human-rights/).
   Commission staff also participated in discussions about human rights in the e-festival of ideas, an online youth conference run by Vibewire.

4 Seminar
series

9. The Commission organised and hosted a seminar series to support engagement
   in the Consultation:
   • 17 February 2009: UK Human Rights Act as a ‘parliamentary
     model’ of rights protection: lessons for Australia, presented by Mr
     Murray Hunt, Legal Adviser to the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human
     Rights. An audio recording of the seminar is available at: http://www.humanrights.gov.au/letstalkaboutrights/events/Hunt_2009.html.
   • 5 March 2009: A Human Rights Act, the courts and the Constitution,
     presented by the Hon Michael McHugh AC QC. An audio recording of the seminar and
     Mr McHugh’s paper are available at: http://www.humanrights.gov.au/letstalkaboutrights/events/McHugh_2009.html.
   • 28 April 2009: The Constitution and a Human Rights Act (co-hosted by
     the Commission and the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies), presented
     by Mr Mark Moshinsky SC, Professor Adrienne Stone and Associate Professor
     Kristen Walker.

5 Speaking
engagements

11. The President and Commissioners have delivered speeches at a broad spectrum
    of events across Australia to encourage involvement in the Consultation. These
    speeches are available on the Commission website at http://www.humanrights.gov.au/about/media/speeches/human_rights/index.html.

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