NSW Charter of Human Rights

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (1948)

(60 years on - has the golden thread of human rights unravelled?)

Thursday 27 November, 2008 @ 6 for 6.30 pm

THAT!(The Talking Heads at Toxteth) panellists are:

JOHN DOWD                    Former State Attorney-General and Justice of the Supreme Court of NSW, International Commission of Jurists (President)            

STUART REES                   Director, Sydney Peace Foundation and

                                         Internationalist 

ED SANTOW                     Senior Lecturer in Law, UNSW and Director,

                                         Charter of Human Rights Project, Gilbert & Tobin

                                         Center (sic) of Public Law

THAT!  AUDIENCE            Discussion encouraged– so come prepared

NOTE:   Also attached to the covering email is a Motion for an Australian Charter of Human Rights (drafted by Prof. George Williams) – this Motion will be put (without amendment) to the Meeting.   If you wish to fully participate in this session google, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

VIEWER ADVICE:  This session is rated LLR for laws, liberties & rights

The venue is the upstairs function room of the Toxteth Hotel, 345 Glebe Point Road, Glebe (cnr Ferry Road)

 Senior & Pensioner discounts available at Bar but not for sessions – see Donation below for others

Join us for dinner after for a “buy one get one free” meal deal

DINNER RESERVATIONS ESSENTIAL  -  see Inquiries below

Donation:   $10   –    FREE  for Benefits recipients, full-time students, unwaged                 

Convenors:      Kate Barton,  Alexandra Penfold,  Helen Randerson

Inquiries:         katebarton3@optusnet.com.au   or  Tel:    9518.5560

Dr. Lesley Cannold, Sun Herald, 13 July 2008.

YOU might think I am the sort of person who has always favoured a charter of human rights, but it isn’t so.

Having come of age in America, I had seen first-hand the social ructions caused by the Supreme Court’s invalidation of laws that violated the bill of rights. I watched my country struggle to come to terms with that court’s banning of unconstitutional racially segregated schools, its upholding of the separation of church and state and its striking down of laws banning abortion.

In principle I agreed with each one of these decisions, yet as a new migrant to Australia in the early 1990s I thought this nation’s more incrementalist approach to social change had much to commend it …. Don’t trust politicians with your human rights

Just when it seemed safe to be openly proud of Australia, the cultural cringers are at it again. This time we need to be ashamed of ourselves because Australia does not have a bill of rights.

Philip Ruddock’s response to the Geoffrey Robinson article in the Sydney Morning Herald, 31 August 2007: Bills of rights do not protect freedoms

New Matilda comment on these comments

NOTE:  It is the position of the NSW Charter Group that the question of human rights protection should be the subject of an open, effective and independent consultation with the community.  When considering the scope of such a consultation, the NSW Charter Group seeks consultation on both what rights should be protected and how they should be protected.  While this is not the same as putting the question to an election, in which many other issues will influence voters, it does seek to give the community an informed and genuine say in the process of developing the appropriate model of human rights protection.

Quote from the Prime Minister, John Howard, at a lunch celebrating 40 years of talkback radio on July 30, 2007, by Annabel Crabb in the SMH on July 31, 2007.

 ”I am, as you know, a strident opponent of the view that this country should have a bill of rights … I think that when you start writing rights down you probably end up circumscribing people’s rights,” he said.

He said there were three things in Australia that obviated the need for a bill of rights;  vigorous parliamentary system, an incorruptible judiciary, and a free media.  And there is nothing quite so free, when it comes to the media in this country, as talkback radio.”

Who needs a bill of rights when you’ve got Lawsie?” asks Annabel

Taken from The Bar Association’s news and current awareness bulletin Inbrief 27/07/2007

The Bar Association resolved on 4 May 2006 to support the attorney
general’s call for a community consultation with respect to a charter of
human rights for NSW. It sought from its Human Rights Committee an
options paper considering the models that are available and which one
the committee recommended. Read the committee’s options paper
…