8 September 2011
National Human Rights Action Plan Secretariat
Human Rights Policy Branch
Attorney-General’s Department
Via email: [email protected].
Dear Secretariat
Equality Rights Alliance (ERA) thanks the Attorney-General’s Department for the
opportunity to comment on the development of Australia’s next National Human
Rights Action Plan.
ERA is Australia’s largest organisational network advocating for women’s equality,
women’s leadership and recognition of women’s diversity. We bring together 54 nongovernment organisations and social enterprises with an interest in advancing
women’s equality. ERA is one of six National Women’s Alliances, managed by the
YWCA Australia with funding from the Australian Government Office for Women.
Members of ERA endorse all or part of this submission.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments on the development of the
Baseline Study for Australia’s next National Human Rights Action Plan. We look
forward to further opportunities to discuss the drafting of the Action Plan. If you would
like to discuss any issues we have raised, please contact me on 02 6230 5152 or
[email protected].
Yours sincerely,
Kathy Richards
Manager, Equality Rights Alliance
Equality Rights Alliance
Women’s Voices for Gender Equality
Level 5, 161 London Circuit, Canberra ACT 2602 | PO Box 1022 Dickson ACT 2602
T: 02 6175 9926 | F: 02 6175 9993 | E: [email protected]
www.equalityrightsalliance.org.au
My Rights!
A proposal for an annual reporting of
indicators of human rights in Australia
Equality Rights Alliance (ERA) is Australia’s largest network advocating for women’s
equality, women’s leadership and recognition of women’s diversity. We bring together
54 organisations with an interest in advancing women’s equality. ERA is one of six
National Women’s Alliances, led by the YWCA Australia with funding from the Federal
Office for Women. Our members are non government organisations and social
enterprises with a focus on the impact of policy or service delivery on women
ERA endorses the views contained in the substantial submissions on the Baseline
Study sent by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
and the Human Rights Law Centre in Melbourne. We are sending this brief submission
with some additional comments and suggestions.
If Australia is to have an effective Human Rights Action Plan, it requires clear and
achievable goals. Ideally these should be outcome-based, with measurable indicators
which can show where progress is being made against the goals. However, given the
limited timeframe and resources, the plan does need to contain some input and
output measures to show whether resources and processes are in place to move
Australia towards meeting human rights goals.
What is not included
The Baseline Study and the questions that have been set for possible input suggest a
framework which is essentially legalistic. The basic question of which actual rights
should be embedded in the concept of Australian citizenship/residency is not
addressed. Also, the document emphasises compliance with various UN instruments in
legal terms but does not deal with the social and economic consequences associated
with diminishing of human rights.
Chapter two starts with mentions of these but then seems to dismiss them:
‘Australia’s UPR National Report also highlights Australia’s strong human rights
performance, particularly regarding most civil, political, economic, social and
cultural rights. For example, the National Report points to Australia’s strong legal
and institutional protections, its comprehensive social security system, the
Equality Rights Alliance
Women’s Voices for Gender Equality
Level 5, 161 London Circuit, Canberra ACT 2602 | PO Box 1022 Dickson ACT 2602
T: 02 6175 9926 | F: 02 6175 9993 | E: [email protected]
www.equalityrightsalliance.org.au
continual improvement of Australia’s universal public health system, Australia’s
commitment to equality, non-discrimination, freedom of religion and belief, and
the workplace protections provided by the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).1
However, the National Consultation identified a select number of human rights
issues. These have also been raised by UN human rights treaty bodies. This Chapter
focuses on some of those key issues.
The issues identified in the draft are access to justice, counter-terrorism measures, use
of force by police and human trafficking. These issues are important to those who get
caught up in legal systems which impact unfairly on members of disadvantaged
groups. However, the reasons why these groups are vulnerable to injustice and the
effects of such encounters also need to be addressed. It is often social, economic and
political factors that allow such institutional discrimination to occur. We recommend
the approach of the NZ Human Rights Commission’s report on Human Rights in New
Zealand 2010, which dedicates a section to civil and political rights and another to
economic, social and cultural rights, as well as looking at particular subgroups. In
particular we would like to see a clear section which looks at the economic, social and
cultural rights including the rights to health, education, (paid and unpaid) work,
housing and social security. In particular, engaging with the more social and cultural
aspects within these categories would also include the ways that discrimination against
particular subgroups becomes systemic.
The Action Plan
The output should be an annual report to parliament, to the Human Rights Committee,
which should trigger an annual debate on whether individuals and groups have made
progress toward fairness and equity. A My Rights website could be the reporting site,
initially summarising the baseline of where we are now; and then showing, on an
annual basis, where things improve or fail to progress.
This requires the various groups interested in ameliorating rights to agree on common
basic measures of the status of human rights in Australian society. These should be
based on some agreed equality/equity measures, eg education outcomes, legal rights
and so forth. Groups could assess their position against what might be community
Australia, Universal Periodic Review National Report – Australia, UN HRCOR, 10th session, UN Doc
A/HRC/WG.6/10/AUS/1 (2010) [124-127].
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Equality Rights Alliance
Women’s Voices for Gender Equality
Level 5, 161 London Circuit, Canberra ACT 2602 | PO Box 1022 Dickson ACT 2602
T: 02 6175 9926 | F: 02 6175 9993 | E: [email protected]
www.equalityrightsalliance.org.au
standards, rather than just pushing individual barrows for our constituencies.
Questions of gender and race cut across categories like ageing, disability etc. We agree
strongly with the Human Rights Law Centre’s comments on the need to recognise how
multiple factors intersect in the experience of human rights in Australia. We need
measures and plans that deal with interlocking targets.
The determination of priority actions do-able in the three designated years needs to
be carefully managed in order to avoid having ‘competing victims’. If target groups are
in competition with each other, there is a risk that the more easily fixed or most visible
problems subsume the more disadvantaged and socially isolated.
Data
The most obvious shortcoming in the Baseline Study is the almost complete absence of
data. A baseline by definition is a starting point for measuring growth or progress, and
this document falls short of this purpose The only section which provides some
baseline data and sets measurable targets is in relation to the Closing the Gap initiative
on indigenous disadvantage. (There are isolated statistics in other sections, but these
are treated as illustrative rather than as the reference point for measurable
improvement.)
The document only mentions the need for data, or a commitment to gathering data,
on human trafficking, violence against women, elder abuse, disability, prisoners and
children in care. However, what is needed is a systematic, comprehensive mechanism
for collecting human rights data, to enable the government and the community to
track our progress toward specific goals. The system should be housed in the
Australian Bureau of Statistics or the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare. (Nb
we believe some of these data may already be collected by state/territory or federal
agencies, but not disaggregated and published by target group.)
The availability of a series of appropriate data sets would allow Australians to set
targets and judge whether the Action Plan is making a serious difference. There has
been some work done in areas like gender indicators and disability plans which could
offer models for how to approach the task. At the most recent meeting of NGOs on the
Action Plan (28 June 2011) the following was agreed:
Equality Rights Alliance
Women’s Voices for Gender Equality
Level 5, 161 London Circuit, Canberra ACT 2602 | PO Box 1022 Dickson ACT 2602
T: 02 6175 9926 | F: 02 6175 9993 | E: [email protected]
www.equalityrightsalliance.org.au
Data Collection
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The need to improve data collection was identified, including:
 The need to collect high quality data to develop an accurate
assessment of human rights issues at a particular point in
time in order to measure future progress.
 The need to develop disaggregated data sets based on sex,
disability, CALD background and other factors. The lack of
such data means that evidence is not able to be developed
to support particular interventions and policies to remedy
disadvantaged suffered by such groups. Instead, policy is
developed in response to inadequate and incomplete data
sets.
Utilise data already collected by NGOs in identifying needs and action
points.
There needs to also be a focus on outcome-based indicators (as opposed
to input based indicators/measures). For example, television advertising
on domestic violence was introduced but this has not correlated to a
measured reduction in instances of domestic violence.
Implementation of a traffic light system to signal when there is progress,
no progress, or, most importantly, regression on a particular issue.
It was also noted that the importance of certain social issues and social
outcomes should not be diminished merely because there were not
measurable or able to be quantified.
These above proposals as outlined in the report of the NGO meeting of 28 June 2011
are endorsed by ERA as a basis for the next steps. We suggest that a Rights Data
Working Party be set up that includes ABS and AIHW. The latter group already houses
the Closing the Gap Clearing House and collates much data from states and territories.
The ABS has just completed its 2011 census and looking at how its outputs could
inform a human rights plan would be important. It would also allow the human rights
communities to discuss whether the next census could include some additional
questions, as that planning starts soon.
As a starting point we could suggest the following initial set of measures that lend
themselves to analysis via particular population groups:
Equality Rights Alliance
Women’s Voices for Gender Equality
Level 5, 161 London Circuit, Canberra ACT 2602 | PO Box 1022 Dickson ACT 2602
T: 02 6175 9926 | F: 02 6175 9993 | E: [email protected]
www.equalityrightsalliance.org.au
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Education objectives that recognise cultural diversity and strengths
Equity of attendance and outcomes
Employment participation and barriers
Income and sources of income – entitlement to income support
Crime victims
Crime rates/imprisonment/arrests/detention
Health status- particularly where it affects capacity to participate in social and
economic activities
Access to services that assist with social and economic participation
Preservation/recognition of cultures as it affects rights
We note that some sections in the Baseline Study contain far more information than
others, which suggests that these are the areas where more political pressure has
been applied to ensure these were covered:
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The Indigenous section uses the Closing the Gap model but this is limited to socio
economic deficits .
Similarly, the section on women benefits from some statistics on violence and
trafficking but does not address the lack of progress in the area of violence and
why this is so. Workplace and wage inequalities are noted but not what can be
done to make serious structural changes such as discrimination on the basis of
how skills are valued. It is inadequate for instance to state that the problem of
retirement income differences relates to having a publicly funded
superannuation system based on workforce earnings and not address the
inequity of this.
A Baseline Study should have a similar grid showing available data and gaps in data for
each target group/issue area, so a similar basic overview of groups can be used as a
starting point, a genuine baseline against which future measures can be assessed.
We have some particular concerns about areas of omission and sometimes
obfuscation in the Baseline study’s descriptions of present initiatives:
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While we support strongly the right to paid work and fair remuneration, we are
concerned that there is an overemphasis on the obligation to work, regardless of
care responsibilities
This also emerges in questions on welfare payments which are only mentioned
as part of the homelessness section. However, these changes are affecting much
Equality Rights Alliance
Women’s Voices for Gender Equality
Level 5, 161 London Circuit, Canberra ACT 2602 | PO Box 1022 Dickson ACT 2602
T: 02 6175 9926 | F: 02 6175 9993 | E: [email protected]
www.equalityrightsalliance.org.au
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wider populations such as sole parents, those with lesser disabilities and the
unemployed who are being required to comply with increasing demands to seek
employment. The New Zealand Human Rights Commission covers the right to
adequate social security, and Australia should likewise recognise this right.
Perhaps we need a code of rights related to welfare.
There are also current government changes to conditional expenditure of
payments, eg income management programs. These raise issues of the rights to
control the spending of one’s income when one has not broken the law.
The introduction of a disability insurance system could bring some serious
benefits, if adequately funded to meet the range of entitlements necessary for
participation in social and economic activities. However, a rights basis for
entitlement needs to be monitored to ensure that criteria of eligibility do not
exclude those who have legitimate (if less obvious) rights to public support.
Access to services entitlements must not ignore the social/communal rights in
favour of economic-based services, ie for workforce needs.
Two of the most high-profile human rights topics at present are Australia’s
treatment of asylum-seekers and the Northern Territory Emergency Response,
but neither topic is given anything like the attention it deserves in the Baseline
study.
The situation of women and children in detention requires constant monitoring
as their relatively small numbers make them vulnerable to being ignored.
The discrimination that occurs against sex workers both in legislation in some
states that unduly restricts their right to employment and protection and in
communities puts them at serious risk of undue harm and needs to be
addressed.
More on Indicators
The issue of the gender indicators by ABS this week 4125.0 - Gender Indicators,
Australia, Jul 2011 provides a good base for looking at the capacities of the ABS to
contribute to a human rights measurement project. While there is a massive amount
of data, it is generally restricted to gender with the usual variable. The focus in clearly
women but not in our full diversity. Age is there sometimes, marital status and one has
indigenous status. However, other possible categories are not included in the present
tables or even in the data cubes eg gender and disabilities .
The problem is that the data are presented just as description. Therefore, to turn them
into Human Rights Indicators requires both the selection of the most appropriate
subsets and the recasting of the commentary so comparisons are made with what may
Equality Rights Alliance
Women’s Voices for Gender Equality
Level 5, 161 London Circuit, Canberra ACT 2602 | PO Box 1022 Dickson ACT 2602
T: 02 6175 9926 | F: 02 6175 9993 | E: [email protected]
www.equalityrightsalliance.org.au
be deemed ‘averages’ for the measure across groups as a baseline of current
inequalities, as well as a benchmark for measuring progress over defined periods. A
similar collection for other groups of interest is obviously possible in most cases, and
the basis for good indicators is obviously already there in many cases. .
Conclusion
ERA supports the idea of an Action Plan but shares concerns expressed in other
submissions that it needs to be much more than an account of what is being done. It
needs to establish a baseline of measurable indicators that can then be used to assess
progress or even record when Australia slips back. While there are some areas with
statistics, such as in trafficking and homelessness, the baseline should reflect much
broader issues than just those areas where work is already done. Housing needs are
more than just the for homeless, for instance, and the recognition of cultural strengths
and diversity are crucial to many areas. Women are affected by many other areas of
limited rights where gender is a subset such as Indigenous programs and policy.
We want to see a clear statement of these indicator gaps and a plan for remedying
them. Therefore, we need official recognition of the gaps in data, including those areas
an adequate baseline set is not available at present. This strategy would not
necessarily change Government priorities in the short term but would provide a clear
picture of where rights are inadequate. This would both indicate good will and allow
the NGOs and others to work towards the necessary changes in policies and priorities
which are indicated as necessary.
Appendix I: New Zealand Human Rights Card
We commend the New Zealand report card on the state of human rights in New
Zealand was launched on 10 December, 20102. The New Zealand report card is an
illustrative example of good practice for a Baseline Report.
http://www.hrc.co.nz/human-rights-environment/human-rights-in-new-zealand-2010/
Equality Rights Alliance
Women’s Voices for Gender Equality
Level 5, 161 London Circuit, Canberra ACT 2602 | PO Box 1022 Dickson ACT 2602
T: 02 6175 9926 | F: 02 6175 9993 | E: [email protected]
www.equalityrightsalliance.org.au
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