Griffith Law School academics welcome Queensland’s Human Rights Act Bill and are available for comment
- Associate Professor Sue Harris-Rimmer, Australian Research Council Future Fellow says: “This is an important bill for Queensland, especially remote and regional Queensland. This bill will focus on equity for all Queenslanders in access to government services.”
- Professor Penelope Mathew is a refugee law expert, and was also the Human Rights Legal and Policy Adviser to the Human Rights Commission in the Australian Capital Territory. During her time at the Human Rights Commission, Pene conducted the Human Rights Audit of the ACT’s Correctional Facilities – a year-long empirical project which documented and assessed practises in the ACT’s remand centres against international human rights standards for the treatment of prisoners.
- Professor Don Anton looks forward to helping to pioneer research focusing on the Act’s application to the intersection between human rights and the environment.
- Professor Elena Marchetti is keen to ensure that the rights of Indigenous Australians are protected particularly when it comes to their involvement with the criminal justice system.
- Professor Charles Sampford is interested in the protection of social and economic rights and their interaction with civil and political rights – in drafting, in institutional support and in judicial interpretation.
- Dr Chris Butler is interested in following how the new Queensland Human Rights Act may: encourage forms of democratic participation in public affairs; enhance procedural protections in relation to public decision-making; and contribute to greater social and economic equality.
- Dr Tim Cadman will contribute to exploring the interaction between free, prior and informed consent, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, international environmental policy, and human rights.
- Mr Shahram Dana – says all at Griffith Law School will be watching the implementation of the Queensland Human Rights Act to ensure Queenslanders have effective avenues for redress and remedy of human rights violations.
- Joanne Stagg-Taylor eagerly anticipates researching how the Act will protect and impact on patient rights, privacy, gender-based issues and the rights of LGBTQI people.
- Jovana Mastilovic looks forward to contributing to research focusing on the Act’s application to human rights, particularly refugee studies, and how it can improve the lives of displaced people and their access to education and protection.
- Elizabeth Englezos is currently reviewing the rights and protections for data subjects and hopes to contribute to the development of a rights-protective framework that is appropriate to the modern online environment.