Scope for human rights improvement in ACT

The ACT Government should amend its Human Rights Act to include economic, social and cultural rights, according to the authors of a new report which was tabled today in the ACT Legislative Assembly. The research, by a team from The Australian National University and the University of New South Wales, is the first full investigation of how economic, social and cultural rights could be protected in an Australian context. The research was led by Professor Hilary Charlesworth (ANU) and Professor Andrew Byrnes (UNSW) with Renuka Thilagaratnam (ANU) and Dr Katie Young (ANU). The report was tabled in the Legislative Assembly today by ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell to mark International Human Rights day on 10 December. ?The report discusses the overseas experience with protection of economic, social and cultural rights and concludes that there are persuasive grounds for expanding the coverage of the ACT Human Rights Act to include these, and that there are ways of doing this what will enhance the protection of human rights in the ACT,? said Professor Charlesworth. Drawing on the specialist drafting skills within the ACT Government, the report includes model provisions for the protection of economic, social and cultural rights that reflect local circumstances. The report is part of a five-year review of the Act which began in 2009.