In 2006 the Tasmanian Government invited the Law Reform Institute of Tasmania to investigate how human rights could be best enshrined in law in Tasmania. I wrote about that here, and made a submission to the LRI’s inquiry as detailed here.
Well they have laboured mightily and produced… something pretty reasonable, actually. Called A Charter of Rights for Tasmania (2.7Mb pdf) it runs to 258 pages including Addenda, so I’ll give you a precis. It’s going before Parliament and I honestly have no idea how it will be received – that may depend on the balance of “good press” versus “legal incovenience to current legislation and pet projects like the corrupt Pulp Mill approval process”.
A Charter of Rights for Tasmania
The Charter would be an ordinary piece of legislation, but this legislation would place responsibilities on government in the enaction of all other legislation. All legislation would be scrutinised to check that it was compatible with human rights. The courts would be instructed by the Charter to interpret laws as far as possible so as to be compatible with human rights. Where laws were found to be incompatible, the government would be required to either repeal the law, change it, or issue a statement saying that they were happy that the law breach human rights.
That doesn’t sound as if it really compels government to do the right thing, but in practise it’s quite effective because the bad publicity involved in incompatible legislation has been shown to mean that governments rarely go down this route.
Public authorities will likewise be bound by the Charter, and any person whose human rights are infringed by either the government or a government authority can seek redress through the courts. The Charter establishes a Human Rights commissioner to monitor the operation of the Charter and educate the community about it, as well as being party to proceedings involving he operation of the Charter.
The Rights
- To life, liberty, security of the person, and protection of the family and children.
- To humane treatment when detained, to a fair trial, compensation for wrongful conviction, and for special treatment for children by the criminal justice system.
- To privacy and reputation.
- To freedom of movement, conscience, thought, religion, belief, expression, association, and assembly.
- To equality before the law and equal protection of the law.
- To freedom from discrimination, and to the right to enjoy ethnic religious and linguistic minority culture.
- Indigenous Tasmanians have the right to maintain distinctive identity, culture, kinship ties, and their relationship with the land.
- To freedom from torture and cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and from genocide.
- To freedom from slavery, forced work; the right to work and have just conditions of work.
- The right of children to not be exploited economically or socially.
- The right to adequate food, clothing, housing, physical and mental health, and education.
- The right to not be deprived of property except on just terms.
- The right to a safe environment and the protection of the environment from pollution and ecological degradation.
Certain rights, such as freedom from torture, genocide, slavery, and the right to be recognised as a person before the law are considered inalienable, and cannot be overridden by government fiat.