Making Indigenous Australians ‘disappear’: Problems arising from our birth registration systems

(2009) 34(3) Alternative Law Journal Volume 157

This article explores problems that are being encountered by some Indigenous Australian in realising their right to birth registration and obtaining a copy of their birth certificate. It analyses these obstacles in light of international and domestic human rights laws, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic). The author concludes that Australia’s laws and policies regarding birth registration are disproportionately disadvantaging Indigenous Australians, with the lack of birth certificates, a real and substantive barrier to their enjoyment of the rights and privileges of Australian citizenship.

Making Visible the Problem of Invisibility

(2009) 83(10) Law Institute Journal 52

There are a number of aborigines who are unable to prove their identity; either because their birth was never registered, or because they cannot satisfy the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages’ prerequisites for obtaining a birth certificate. This article explores how the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 addresses this problem.

Jack & Jill or Jack & Bill: The case for same-sex adoption

Co-authored with Adiva Sifris. (2009) 34(3) Alternative Law Journal 168

This article examines the discriminatory legislation which prohibits same-sex couples from adopting children in many jurisdictions. New South Wales is used as a case study to highlight inconsistencies between the treatment of heterosexual prospective parents and same-sex parents. This is contrasted with the legal recognition of same-sex parents pursuant to recent amendments to the Federal Family Law Act 1975 and various State Acts.

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the New United Nations Human Rights Council

(2007) 10 Flinders Journal of Law Refrm 241

The United Nations established the Commission on Human Rights in 1946, to protect and promote human rights but, the history of the last 60 years, demonstrates all too clearly that this body has failed in its aims. Words like 'Rwanda', 'Darfur', 'Srebrenica', 'Abu Ghraib', and 'Pinochet' immediatelty evoke images of grave human rights abuses that the Commission failed to respond to. It was the Commission's failures which motivated the UN General Assembly to pass a historic resolution on 15 March 2006, dismantling the Commission and replacing it with a new body - the Human Rights Council. This abolition of the Commission and creation of the Council is, without doubt, one of the most significant reforms regarding the way in which human rights are promoted and protected, within the history of the UN.

This article considers why there was a need for such dramatic change and, the exact nature and extent of the change. It provides an overview of the reforms by examining five specific aspects of the Commission that were widely criticised, namely: its membership and size; the complaint processes; the abuse of the no-action procedure; the role of non-governmental organisations; and the operation of special procedures.

Human Rights Reform in the United Nations: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Alternative Law Journal, Vol. 31, No. 2, 2006

Recently there has been extensive criticism of the effectiveness of United Nations (UN) human rights bodies. In particular the Commission on Human Rights has been described as 'irrelevant' and 'positively destructive' because it has failed to act decisively when governments suppress human rights which they are legally bound to uphold. These kinds of accusations prompted Secretary General Kofi Annan to initiate a program of reform, a flagship of which, was to abolish the Commission and replace it with a new body to be known as the Human Rights Council. The author reviews the work of the old Commission on Human Rights and looks at the newly established Human Rights Council.

BLACK RIGHTS/WHITE CURRICULUM: HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

(2004) 9(1) Deakin Law Review 61