Rights Australia campaigns for more effective protection of human rights in Australia, and aims to bring to the community's attention situations where:
• human rights are being neglected and abused;• lives could be improved if human rights were protected;
• support can be given for better and lasting protection of human rights.
Through the contributions of a large support base, we plan to:
• Sustain a campaign for long term change;
• Assist with the current human rights challenges in Australia; and
• Provide a loud and sensible voice in the media on the issues which need a human rights perspective.
Nation’s prisons face new scrutiny
On May 2, Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith announced that Australia had begun the process of becoming a party to the Optional Protocol of the Convention against Torture. This will allow both international and national scrutiny of our various systems of detention.
The announcement by McClelland and Smith received little media attention, even though it amounts to a significant step by Australia in enhancing human rights protections and represents a welcome reversal of the Howard government’s thumbing its nose at the prospect of international scrutiny of our detention facilities.
The practical impact of Australia becoming a party to the optional protocol is that those thousands of individuals who are detained in our prisons, youth training centres and detention centres will now have a greater opportunity to prevent being subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.