Civil rights
Media and commentary related to our work protecting and advancing civil rights. This includes police accountability, justice in youth detention, asylum seeker rights, discrimination, access to justice and Raise the Age.
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UN recommends Australia legislate on audio descriptions
A seven+ year campaign to have Australian networks provide audio descriptions for the blind and vision impaired community has resulted in a United Nations committee finding Australia in breach of an international human rights treaty. The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has recommended that Australia take “the necessary legislative and policy…
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Lack of audio descriptions on Australian TV a human rights breach, UN committee finds
A United Nations committee has found Australia breached an international human rights treaty by failing to provide audio descriptions on free-to-air television for the blind and vision impaired community. The finding from the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities comes after a long-standing human rights complaint from 36-year-old Melbourne disability advocate Lauren…
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UN says Australia must ensure equal access to free-to-air TV for people who are blind or vision impaired
The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has found Australia has breached the rights of people who are blind and vision impaired by failing to meet its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. PIAC supported disability rights advocate Lauren Henley to take a complaint to the UN…
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Activists Want The UN To Look Into Inhumane Use Of Handcuffs On Asylum Seekers
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is urging the United Nations torture watchdog to investigate Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers seeking medical treatment. Asylum seekers in immigration are handcuffed when seeking transfers for medical care, a practice that has been widely condemned and accused of being in breach of human rights laws. PIAC is urging…
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Being handcuffed for medical appointments left asylum seeker Yasir shaken. Why is it happening?
Asylum seekers are being given the choice of being handcuffed on their way to medical appointments or missing out on healthcare, and an Australian rights group is calling for the United Nations to look into it. On his way to see a doctor, Yasir* says he would be routinely handcuffed while he was in immigration…
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Call for UN torture watchdog to investigate Australia’s handcuffing of asylum seekers en route to medical care
The United Nations’ torture prevention watchdog has been urged to investigate Australia’s use of handcuffs on asylum seekers when seeking medical care – a practice advocates condemn as inhumane and unlawful. In 2020, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) launched a landmark test case in the federal court alleging the practice of handcuffing immigration detainees…
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Handcuffing in Australian immigration detention needs urgent review ahead of UN visit
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) says a comprehensive review of handcuffing in Australia’s onshore immigration detention system is urgently needed. Handcuffing asylum seekers for offsite medical appointments and transfers between facilities has become routine practice, without individualised and appropriate assessment of risk. PIAC’s work with people in immigration detention shows the overuse of handcuffs…
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‘No child belongs in prison’: 128,000 signatures to raise the age in NSW and Victoria
More than 128,000 community members, lawyers, and advocates from NSW and Victoria have called for the age of legal responsibility to be raised to at least 14, and for an end to arresting, handcuffing, strip-searching and jailing children as young as 10. “The verdict from medical, legal and child development experts is clear: criminalising children…
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Supreme Court challenge to use of solitary confinement in NSW youth justice centres filed
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) has filed a test case in the Supreme Court challenging the use of “segregation” (solitary confinement) as a form of punishment in youth justice centres in NSW. PIAC has filed a case on behalf of their client, Daniel, whose identity is being protected by a pseudonym.
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‘A huge toll on my mental health’: challenge to the use of segregation as punishment in youth justice centres
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre has filed a test case in the Supreme Court challenging the use of “segregation” as a form of punishment in youth justice centres in New South Wales on behalf of their client Daniel*. In 2016, while Daniel was held on remand at Cobham Youth Justice Centre, he was placed on…