Submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights

Australia is a party to several key human rights treaties and international agreements. However, the rights protected in these agreements do not have any force in Australia until they are incorporated into domestic legislation. Australia is one of the only liberal democracies without a piece of federal human rights legislation. This has garnered repeated criticism from the international community, particularly for the human rights violations that have been able to occur in Australia with no recourse in the absence of such protections. This inquiry represents an opportunity to shift this legacy, and meaningfully act on the obligations we have voluntarily assumed under international law.

RACS’ submission speaks specifically to our experience of gaps in human rights protection in Australia as it relates to refugees and people seeking asylum.

We aim to highlight the ways in which current Australian laws and practice breach the obligations we have assumed under international law. RACS seeks to draw attention to the impact of this gap on the communities we serve in order to emphasise the benefits that formal and federal rights protection may have for refugees, people seeking asylum and the stateless in Australia.