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.auhttps://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/commission-general/broken-link 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 (https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/commission-general/broken-link). 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.auhttps://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/commission-general/broken-link.

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