Human rights – on the home front
'Woeful' situation: Professor Rioux, left, with Ms Basser.
Australians are regarded as laid back when it comes to the assertion of our rights. Are we being overly passive in relation to the public authorities that govern our lives?
The answer to this question should become more apparent as the new Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities, which came into operation in January, begins to challenge our culture.
Academics will be playing major roles in examining and recommending ways that the Charter is implemented and in how it eventually affects us.
Associate Professor Lee Ann Basser, from La Trobe's School of Law, is part of a team with an Australian Research Council Linkage grant to examine this contentious area. She is keen to ensure that people are treated in a dignified and appropriate manner.
Australia is way behind in the legislative field of human rights, she says, particularly at the Commonwealth level.
'Australia is one of the few countries in the world that doesn't have a bill of rights. By contrast, countries such as South Africa and Uganda have really progressive charters of rights in their constitutions.'
It was in response to this 'woeful' situation that the ACT introduced a bill, followed by Victoria.
The research project will audit the Victorian Charter. It will be a detailed legal, government and policy case study of the most important human rights initiative in recent Australian history, says Ms Basser.
It will provide new knowledge in key areas of human rights: the operation of human rights bills, links between human rights and social disadvantage, education and community attitudes, and strategic government implementation.
The project will develop a new policy tool – a national audit – to monitor, plan and strengthen human rights in government and the community, and contribute to better social well-being and stronger democracy in Australia.
Its methods include a pilot audit of the legislation's implications for disability groups in the State and monitoring cases before the courts to see how human rights arguments are used in decisions.
This human rights audit, developed internationally for people with disabilities, will be administered by the people themselves. Interviews will generate data out of which a picture will emerge of impediments to disability rights in the State.
'One of the big advantages of this is that it gives people with disabilities the language to address the issues themselves,' Ms Basser says.
The audit builds on one developed by Professor Marcia Rioux from York University in Canada. She is visiting La Trobe's Institute for Advanced Studies to work with Ms Basser on the ARC study. Professor Rioux has many down-to-earth examples of how consideration of rights can change the way we look at society.
'Everybody has the right to vote,' she says. 'Yet voting stations have stairs that infringe upon the rights of those in wheel chairs. If candidates don't have signers at their meetings, then people who are deaf don't know what's going on.'
Then there are the rights of people in the prison system.
'Not all of them are in prison because they did something wrong,' Professor Rioux says. 'There's another story going on behind the scenes.'
Research has shown that a large number of prisoners, for example, suffer from foetal alcohol syndrome, a condition arising when mothers drink excessively whilst pregnant.
'These statistics give us a tip-off about what is going on,' she says. 'We need to stop and think about how we can provide assistance to people to ensure non-discrimination, dignity and autonomy. Many people don't get to make decisions in their lives.'
Professor Rioux has been involved in the development of disability policy in Victoria. Many of the issues that arise in this policy area can be generalised to the community as a whole.
Her work can be applied to the treatment of patients by hospitals, older people by their relatives, students by colleges, welfare recipients by agencies.
'Often people trade in rights for indignities,' she says. 'The welfare system is allowed to intervene in people's lives. If you take away rights to have noninterference then you trade in rights for charity.
'It is important to think about rights. You have to ask questions. It's not just about giving welfare. You have to give it in a way that rights are respected.'
Professor Rioux returns to La Trobe later this year to teach a course on human rights and comparative disability law. The course, from 4-5 and 8-10 December, will consider the impact of the new Victorian legislation as well as the new UN Disability Convention.