President's statement - Annual Report 2009-2010: Australian Human Rights Commission

President's statement

By the time that this annual report is published, Professor Gillian Triggs will have succeeded me as President of the Australian Human Rights Commission. I wish her well in her new role and trust that she will gain the enjoyment and satisfaction from leading the work of the Commission that I have done.

Unsurprisingly, the Commission that I leave is different in a number of ways from the Commission that I joined in 2008. Important differences include the increased emphasis being placed on fostering a national culture of respect for human rights generally and the increasing use of new technologies to reach out to the Australian public.

As part of our efforts to foster a national culture of respect for human rights, the Commission has over the past four years adopted a more co-ordinated and collegiate approach to our work. This is most easily seen in our adoption of two key priorities which have informed so many of our activities during this period. As reported in previous years, these priorities are (1) building understanding and respect for rights and (2) tackling violence, harassment and bullying in our community. Information about the work undertaken to advance these priorities during the past year can be found in the body of this report. As that information illustrates, we are making increasing use of new technologies including the internet, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr to convey our messages to the public.

The Commission's increasing use of new technologies is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that the internet has become our primary advocacy tool. The Commission's website has been considerably enhanced over the last four years as a source of accessible and engaging information about rights and responsibilities. It includes content relevant to individuals, students, business, the non-government sector and government agencies. The website attracted more than 17 million ‘hits' during 2011-2012.

Additionally, on Human Rights Day 2011, I launched the Commission's Something In Common project.

This project consists of two inter-related websites aimed at building understanding and respect for rights in the community. The Something In Common project is designed to provide short facts, interactive content including personal video stories and opportunities to take actions which demonstrate respect for rights.

The steadily increasing numbers of visitors to these sites is very pleasing.

Another example of our use of a new technology is the recent YouTube launch by the Commission of a national competition for children between 13–17 years of age to address cyber-bulling. The Commission is delighted to have forged some excellent partnerships with government and private sector organisations to support its innovative BackMeUp campaign which is described in more detail in the body of this report.

This increasing use of new technologies does not mean that the Commission has abandoned reliance on more traditional means of education. During the year under review we continued, for example, to engage with the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) to ensure the inclusion of human rights in school education. We continued to work with the Attorney-General's Department to ensure human rights training for the public sector and to develop a better understanding of what constitutes effective community-based human rights education. Our Investigation and Conciliation Service continued to identify ways of providing education and thereby achieving systemic change through our individual complaints based work. We also completed a pilot program that aims to enhance the human rights understanding of community development workers. This Certificate IV in Human Rights Education and Advocacy has integrated human rights content into the formal curriculum for community cultural development workers working with Muslim women. It has received positive feedback and we plan to expand the project to other audiences and to refine its content over the next 12 months.

Additionally, in September 2011 I launched the Australian Public Sector Human Rights Network. This network is designed to provide public servants who have responsibilities for policy development, law reform and service delivery with collegiate support, opportunities to learn from experts and a forum within which to share experiences in human rights protections. I am delighted that the network has grown rapidly and now has nearly 600 members.

Two new Commissioners joined the Commission during 2011-2012, enhancing our collegiate strength. The Hon Susan Ryan AO joined us as Australia's first Age Discrimination Commissioner on 8 August 2011 and Dr Helen Szoke became Race Discrimination Commissioner on 5 September 2011. Following the arrival of Dr Szoke, each of our specialist Commissioners held only one statutory office. Throughout 2011–2012, I continued to hold both the offices of President and Human Rights Commissioner.

In my capacity as Human Rights Commissioner, I have continued to monitor the human rights impacts of Australia's system of mandatory and indefinite immigration detention, publishing a report about conditions of detention at Curtin Immigration Detention Centre in September 2011. I have welcomed the continuing implementation of the decision of the Minster for Immigration to allow increasing numbers of families, children and other vulnerable individuals to live in the community either through placement into community detention or following the grant of bridging visas. During the first half of 2012, we met with a number of asylum seekers, refugees and stateless people who are living in the community, and with individuals in four immigration detention facilities in Melbourne and Sydney who are facing protracted detention with little prospect of release. A report regarding these visits will be published in late July 2012.

An issue of particular concern in this policy area is the situation of refugees who have been issued with an adverse security assessment and who remain in indefinite immigration detention. People in this situation are not necessarily told the reasons for ASIO's decision nor do they have any substantive opportunity for appeal. This past year, I have strongly advocated for reform of the legal framework governing the conduct of ASIO security assessments.

The Commission has also worked with the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Attorney-General's Department to develop a set of immigration detention standards, based on international human rights standards, which will be published in the second half of 2012.

On 21 November 2011, as President of the Commission, I announced an Inquiry into Australia's treatment of individuals suspected of people smuggling offences who said that they were children. I did so because of my concern that the human rights of this particularly vulnerable group of young Indonesians were not being respected. This concern focussed particularly on the means being used to assess their ages. My decision followed prolonged correspondence with the then Attorney-General and the government's failure to agree to review the cases of all of the young Indonesians who said that they were children who had been convicted as adults or who were awaiting trial having been charged as adults. The report of this Inquiry will be published in late July 2012.

It has been a privilege for me to hold the offices of President of the Australian Human Rights Commission and Human Rights Commissioner and to have the opportunity to work with my wonderful colleagues on the Commission and our dedicated and hardworking staff. The Commission is Australia's national human rights institution. As the Principles relating to the Status of National Institutions (The Paris Principles) adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993 reflect, appropriately funded and independent national human rights institutions have an important role to play in ensuring the promotion and protection of human rights within their own countries. Seen in this light, the role of the Commission is to give relevance within Australia to the international human rights instruments by which our government has agreed to be bound. I leave with confidence that, under the leadership of Professor Triggs, the Commission will continue to fulfil this important role.

The Hon. Catherine Branson, QC

President and Human Rights Commissioner