Human Rights Act
Queensland was the third jurisdiction in Australia to adopt human rights legislation, following the Human Rights Act 2004 in the Australian Capital Territory and the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities 2006 in Victoria.
The main objects of the Queensland Human Rights Act are:
- to protect and promote human rights;
- to help build a culture in the Queensland public sector that respects and promotes human rights; and
- to help promote a dialogue about the nature, meaning and scope of human rights.
The Human Rights Actis a law that protects your rights in Queensland. It protects your rights when you interact with government organisations or use their services, including the police, public hospitals and public schools, and other organisations doing work for the Queensland Government.
The Act imposes obligations on:
- Parliament (Parliament must consider human rights when proposing and scrutinising new laws);
- Courts and Tribunals (courts and tribunals, must interpret legislation in a way that is compatible with human rights so far as it is possible to do so); and
- Government departments and agencies (public entities must act and make decisions in a way that is compatible with human rights and in making a decision, must give proper consideration to human rights relevant to the decision).
What human rights are protected under the Act?
The Act protects 23 fundamental human rights drawn from international human rights law:
- Recognition and equality before the law
- Right to life
- Protection from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
- Freedom from forced work
- Freedom of movement
- Freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief
- Freedom of expression
- Peaceful assembly and freedom of association
- Taking part in public life
- Property rights
- Privacy and reputation
- Protection of families and children
- Cultural rights—generally
- Cultural rights—Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- Right to liberty and security of person
- Humane treatment when deprived of liberty
- Fair hearing
- Rights in criminal proceedings
- Children in the criminal process
- Right not to be tried or punished more than once
- Retrospective criminal laws
- Right to education
- Right to health services.
More information about the rights protected by the Human Rights Act is available here: A plain language guide to your human rights.
Balancing rights
The Human Rights Act recognises that sometimes upholding your rights can impact someone else’s rights. The government has to find a balance between different people’s rights when that happens.
Making a human rights complaint
The Human Rights Act provides for a complaints and dispute resolution process, the first of any Australian state or territory jurisdiction.
If you think the government or an organisation delivering government services has ignored or disrespected your human rights, you can make a complaint directly to the government department or organisation that made the decision or provided the service you’re complaining about.
If 45 business days pass and the department has not answered your complaint, or you aren’t happy with their answer, you can complain to the Queensland Human Rights Commission. The Queensland Human Rights Commission can help to resolve complaints through conciliation.
Remedies
The Human Rights Act provides limited remedies for where there is a contravention of a human right. If the complaint cannot be resolved through conciliation, there is no right of referral to a tribunal for a decision of the complaint and no right to compensation.
Some complaints raise issues that might be covered by both the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 and the Human Rights Act 2019. If a complaint can be dealt with under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991, the human rights aspects can be “piggy-backed” onto the discrimination claim. In this case, the complaint can be referred to a tribunal for decision and a court can award the same remedies for the discrimination complaint. A court can also make a declaration about incompatibility with human rights and the Minister in charge of the department must respond.
Amendments to the Corrective Services Act and Youth Justice Act
The Human Rights Act changed laws governing how detained people are managed in both the adult and youth correctional systems. These changes specifically say that a detained person’s rights are not breached when decisions made about them also take into account the safe custody and welfare of other prisoners, or the security and good management of the facility. This means that detention authorities are allowed to consider those other factors when making decisions that might affect your rights, such how and where you are detained.
Overriding of the Human Rights Act
The Human Rights Act says that in certain circumstances Parliament can pass laws even though they breach the Act. This can happen when the government says there are exceptional circumstances, such as war, a state of emergency, or crisis. Queensland’s Parliament has done this twice so far. The first time was so that breach of bail by young people could be made an offence, and related matters. The second time was to allow young people to be detained indefinitely in police watchhouses. These measures overrode human rights protections for children, and the rights not to be treated or punished in cruel, inhumane or degrading ways; to be segregated from adults; to maintain family and kinship connections; and not to be subject to retrospective increases in penalties.