Human Rights

Human Rights is worth about 20 of the 100 marks: 5 multiple-choice questions in Section I and 15 marks of short-answer questions in Section II Part A (usually about four items, some in parts). Short answers reward precise definitions, specific examples and, for higher-mark items, a judgement.

• The nature and development of human rights: definitions and characteristics, the types of rights, and how recognition developed over time (abolition of slavery, universal adult suffrage, self-determination, education, workers' rights).
• Promoting and enforcing human rights: the role of state sovereignty; international bodies (the UN, intergovernmental organisations, courts and tribunals, NGOs, the media); and Australia's approach (the Constitution, statute law, common law, parliamentary scrutiny, human rights Acts).
• A contemporary human rights issue: the legal and non-legal responses to one issue and their effectiveness.

Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that every person is entitled to because they are human. They have four commonly cited characteristics:

Types of rights

• Civil and political rights ("first generation"): life, liberty, freedom of speech, religion and association, a fair trial, voting. Set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966).
• Economic, social and cultural rights ("second generation"): work, fair conditions, education, health, housing, an adequate standard of living. Set out in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966).
• Collective and environmental rights ("third generation"): self-determination, development, a clean and healthy environment. Self-determination is Article 1 of both covenants.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948), the ICCPR and the ICESCR together form the International Bill of Rights. The UDHR is a General Assembly declaration, not a binding treaty, but many of its principles are now customary international law. The covenants are binding on states that ratify them; Australia ratified both.

The syllabus asks you to trace the developing recognition of rights through examples. Learn two or three in detail with dates.

• Abolition of slavery: the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (UK), the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution (1865), the Slavery Convention (1926), UDHR Article 4. Modern slavery continues; Australia's Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) requires large businesses to report on supply chain risks.
• Universal adult suffrage: South Australian women won the vote in 1894 (and the right to stand for parliament); most women gained the federal vote in 1902; all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people could vote federally from 1962; the voting age fell to 18 in 1973.
• Self-determination: the decolonisation movement after 1945; UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 (1960); the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), which Australia endorsed in 2009. The 2023 referendum on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament was defeated.
• Universal education: UDHR Article 26 and ICESCR Article 13; the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).
• Workers' rights: the International Labour Organization (1919) and its conventions; the right to form trade unions.

State sovereignty is the central challenge. States have supreme authority over their territory; international human rights law binds them only if they consent, and there is little power to force compliance.

The United Nations

• UN Charter (1945): promoting human rights is one of the UN's purposes.
• General Assembly: adopts declarations (non-binding) and treaties (binding on states that ratify them).
• Security Council: can authorise sanctions or force under Chapter VII when there is a threat to international peace, but the veto of the five permanent members often blocks action.
• Human Rights Council (2006): 47 member states; runs the Universal Periodic Review of every UN member, appoints special rapporteurs and sets up commissions of inquiry.
• Treaty bodies: committees of independent experts that monitor each treaty. The Human Rights Committee can hear individual complaints under the First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, as in Toonen v Australia (1994), which led to the Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Act 1994 (Cth).
• Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: supports the system and reports on abuses.

Other bodies

• Intergovernmental organisations: the Council of Europe (European Court of Human Rights, binding judgments), the African Union. (The International Labour Organization is a UN specialised agency that sets binding labour conventions.)
• Courts and tribunals: the International Court of Justice (disputes between states, based on consent); the International Criminal Court (individuals, for the most serious crimes); domestic courts.
• NGOs: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Committee of the Red Cross. They investigate, publicise and lobby but have no enforcement power.
• The media: exposes abuses and creates pressure (for example, the 2016 Four Corners report on Don Dale Youth Detention Centre led to a royal commission), but coverage can be selective.

The responsibility to protect (R2P, 2005) says states must protect their people from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity; if a state manifestly fails, the international community may act through the Security Council.

Australia has no national bill of rights. Rights are protected by a mix of mechanisms.

The Constitution

• Express rights: s 51(xxxi) (just terms for acquisition of property), s 80 (jury trial for Commonwealth indictable offences), s 116 (freedom of religion, limiting the Commonwealth), s 117 (no discrimination based on state residence).
• Implied rights: the implied freedom of political communication (Australian Capital Television v Commonwealth (1992); Lange v ABC (1997)) and protection of the franchise (Roach v Electoral Commissioner (2007)).
• Strength: entrenched, changed only by referendum. Weakness: very few, and mostly limits on government rather than personal rights. A 1988 referendum to extend some rights failed.

Statute law

Australia is dualist: a treaty becomes enforceable in Australian courts only when parliament legislates. Key Acts include the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) (implementing the ICERD), the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth), the Age Discrimination Act 2004 (Cth) and the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW). Statutes can be amended or suspended by ordinary majorities, as when the Racial Discrimination Act was suspended for the 2007 Northern Territory Emergency Response.

Human rights Acts: the ACT (2004), Victoria (2006) and Queensland (2019) have them. They require public authorities to act compatibly with listed rights, but courts cannot strike down incompatible laws.

Parliamentary scrutiny: the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 (Cth) requires a statement of compatibility for every bill and set up the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. In 2024 that committee recommended a federal Human Rights Act; as at 2026 none has been passed.

Common law and institutions

• Common law: courts protect rights through the presumption that parliament does not intend to remove fundamental rights without clear words, and through decisions such as Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (1992) (native title) and Dietrich v The Queen (1992) (fair trial).
• Australian Human Rights Commission: investigates and conciliates complaints under federal discrimination laws; unresolved complaints can go to the Federal Court or the Federal Circuit and Family Court.

A common question is whether Australia should have a national bill of rights or Human Rights Act.

• For: clearer, more consistent protection; makes governments consider rights before acting; brings Australia into line with comparable democracies (the UK, Canada, New Zealand); gives individuals a remedy.
• Against: parliament, not unelected judges, should decide hard questions; rights are already well protected by democracy and the common law; a bill of rights could be used to limit other rights or be costly to litigate.
• Recent developments: the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights recommended a federal Human Rights Act in May 2024, but none has been passed as at 2026. State Acts can also be overridden: in December 2024 Queensland's Making Queensland Safer Act overrode its own Human Rights Act for tougher youth sentencing laws, showing the limits of statutory protection.

Your school chooses one issue to study in depth (for example child soldiers, asylum seekers, the rights of Indigenous peoples, freedom of expression or the rights of LGBTQI+ people). For whichever issue you studied, prepare:

1. The right(s) involved and where they appear (treaty articles).
2. Two legal responses (international and domestic) with dates.
3. Two non-legal responses (NGOs, media, intergovernmental pressure).
4. Evidence of effectiveness (statistics, outcomes, cases).
5. A one-sentence judgement you can adapt to any question.

Worked example: building a judgement

Question style: "Assess the effectiveness of ONE international response to your issue." Plan in three steps:

1. Name the response precisely: for example, the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951) and its 1967 Protocol, which Australia has ratified.
2. What it achieved: a clear international definition of a refugee and the principle of non-refoulement (not returning a person to a place where they face persecution).
3. What limits it: the Convention has no court to enforce it, and states interpret it narrowly. UN bodies have repeatedly criticised Australia's mandatory detention and offshore processing; change has come mainly through Australian courts, such as the High Court's decision in NZYQ v Minister for Immigration (2023) that indefinite immigration detention with no real prospect of removal is unlawful.

Judgement: "The Refugee Convention has been effective in setting the standard of non-refoulement but has had limited influence on how states such as Australia treat people who arrive seeking asylum."

• Confusing the Human Rights Council (states) with the Human Rights Committee (independent experts).
• Saying the UDHR is binding, or that Australia has a bill of rights.
• Calling an NGO an intergovernmental organisation.
• Mixing up express rights (in the text of the Constitution) and implied rights (found by the High Court).
• Writing a long description of the issue without discussing responses or effectiveness.

• Match the verb: outline (main features), explain (cause and effect, "how" and "why"), distinguish (state the difference explicitly), assess or evaluate (make a judgement).
• Marks guide length: roughly one well-supported point per mark. A 5-mark "assess" needs at least two strengths or weaknesses plus a judgement.
• Be specific: name treaties with years, cases with years, and Acts with jurisdiction.
• Use the stimulus if one is given: refer to it directly, then add your own knowledge.

• Crime: the right to a fair trial, the presumption of innocence and the rights of young offenders.
• World Order: the UN, the Security Council veto, R2P and the ICC.
• Workplace and Family: discrimination law, the rights of children and the right to work.