More on Human Rights Act

New Matilda has a report on the launch for a Human Right's Act for Australia with good photographs.



A Human Rights Act for Australia Campaign Launch
Wednesday 12 October 2005
Adam Hochroth

The launch of New Matilda's campaign for a Human Rights Act for Australia on 5 October 2005 was privileged to be addressed by ten distinguished speakers. Appropriately, in their discussions of universal human rights, the speakers brought with them different narratives, backgrounds and perspectives, yet ultimately they were unified by themes and ideas.
Elizabeth Evatt and Malcolm FraserA number of speakers, including Waleed Aly and Greg Combet, spoke of the role of a Human Rights Act as a reflection of Australian values. These values were outlined by Professor Spencer Zifcak as primarily those of egalitarianism, fairness, democracy, and freedom. A Human Rights Act would enshrine such values into law, and in so doing, would provide the legally enforceable counterparts to such moral values. However, the effect of the Act would go beyond the mere creation of legal rights and remedies. The Act would also affirm and proclaim those same values in a particularly meaningful way.It seems appropriate that the law should reflect our values. In this vein, a number of speakers, including Professor Larissa Behrendt (link here ), spoke of the need for a Human Rights Act to make Australia a decent society, or ‘the best society that we can be.' If the law exists to regulate the affairs of persons in a society, how can anyone argue that the law should not reflect the values of that society? Why should Australian law not uphold the decency of Australian society?
Read more here. (Pictures souced New Matilda)