Human Rights

Principles

The Australian Greens believe that:

  1. Universal human rights are fundamental and must be respected and protected in all countries and for all people.
  2. Economic, social, cultural, environmental, civil and political rights are universal, interdependent, and indivisible.
  3. Cultural, religious, gender and other differences often give rise to specific needs and circumstances that must be taken into account in order to ensure equal rights for all.
  4. Greater equality is both a cause and effect of ensuring human rights are respected.

Aims

The Australian Greens want:

  1. Australia to ratify and adhere to, both locally and abroad, all human rights conventions, including their optional protocols.
  2. Greater international respect for and protection of human rights.
  3. To promote and strengthen the role of the International Criminal Court and use all available means to encourage all nations to ratify its status.
  4. Adequate funding for the Australian Human Rights Commission.
  5. To progress an Australian bill of rights and incorporate Australia's international human rights obligations into domestic law.
  6. Non-government entities, including individuals and corporations, to respect human rights and be held accountable for human rights violations.
  7. Australia to actively participate in all United Nations treaty body reporting processes and United Nations Human Rights Council reviews and investigations. This should include responding to and implementing recommendations made to improve Australia’s human rights compliance.
  8. Legal and diplomatic protection for Australian citizens subjected to human rights abuses by foreign powers.
  9. The promotion of agreed international human rights with other countries, including the application of diplomatic and commercial pressures on regimes and governments that violate human rights.
  10. The reform of Australia’s ‘counter-terrorism’ legislation and other relevant legislation, to ensure that it complies with the full range of Australia’s international human rights commitments, including commitments to protect and promote freedom of expression and association, freedom from arbitrary detention, legal due process, and the right to privacy.
  11. The reform of Australia’s migration laws, particularly with regard to freedom from arbitrary detention, protection of the family unit, and other United Nations guidelines.
  12. To commence a war crimes investigation into, secret detention, rendition, torture and other illegal and unconscionable acts with the intention of halting such acts.
  13. Consultation and deliberation processes to be open to independent review to evaluate their effectiveness and recommend improvement to such processes.
  14. An end to the death penalty and opposition to the death penalty in all cases, as well as support for campaigns for its abolition.
  15. An end to the practice of forced evictions, territorial invasions and land grabs for resources, ethnic, religious, territorial and development reasons.

[Policy endorsed: November 2017]