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The Australian Human Rights Commission has this week lodged its submission with the National Human Rights Consultation, recommending that Australia implements a human rights act.

In an opinion piece published in The Mandarin, Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay decries Australia’s ongoing failures in torture protection. The piece was published on the 1989 anniversary of Australia signing up to the UN Convention Against Torture.

National Children's Commissioner Anne Hollonds had an op-ed published in the Canberra Times criticising the lack of government accountability for the protection of children. This comes in the wake of recent allegations of child abuse across several childcare centres in Melbourne.

Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman reflects on how two speeches from two Prime Ministers, half a century apart, hold the key to ending racism. It comes at a significant marker in Australia’s history, fifty years since the Racial Discrimination Act came into effect.

Opinion piece | Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay Earlier this month the Australian Human Rights Commission released Collateral Damage: What the untold stories from the COVID-19 pandemic reveal about human rights in Australia. In the five years since COVID-19 reached Australia, this report is the first to assess the country’s pandemic response through a human rights lens. It is…

The pandemic’s exposure of deep inequalities highlights the urgent need for human rights-centred emergency responses.

When I began my term as President of the Australian Human Rights Commission seven years ago, the marriage equality plebiscite was engulfing our nation, in much the same way as the recent Voice referendum did.

In a joint op-ed, National Children's Commissioner Anne Hollonds and Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay contend that the proposed ban on social media access for Australians under 16 merely addresses surface issues without improving overall safety on these platforms.

There’s been a lot of talk, anger and resistance to the changes of our rights and freedoms as Australia deals with the COVID-19 pandemic. In some way or another, each and every one of us has encountered restrictions – on our freedom of movement, the right to peaceful protest, the ability to engage in public areas without wearing masks and the requirement to provide personal information for…

When the COVID-19 pandemic spread to this big island of ours, our leaders made a momentous decision: they decided to save as many human lives as possible. This was the right decision. It shows we as a country care about human life above all else. But now we face an even harder question: how to save lives while preventing economic collapse and staying true to our democratic values? In order…

In presenting last week’s Federal Budget, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said, “we will get through this together.” Togetherness is an important value in Australia. It speaks to the basic liberal democratic principle that no-one in our community should be left behind. While much of last week’s Budget analysis focused on the details of tax breaks and tax cuts, at a basic level the Budget is also a…

In an opinion piece published in The Guardian, Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay Commissioner Finlay describes the harrowing experiences faced by many women in immigration detention and calls for urgent reform to address these human rights failures. It follows the release of the AHRC report into the issue.