Constitutional law
A Bill of Rights refers to a compilation of human rights protection policies defined within a country’s Constitution (Australian Government Department of Education, Employment, and Workplace Relations). In Australia, attempts to enact a national Bill of Rights have not been fruitful for ages. However, the Australian Capital Territory’s Human Rights Act was passed on July 1, 2004 (Charlesworth & McKinnon 2006) after a prolonged debate. However, to determine if the ACT Bill of Rights is vital in Australia, there is a prime need to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, an aspect that this entry covers in detail.
Strengths of the ACT Bill of Rights
The ACT Bill of Rights does not symbolize a bill of rights within which rights are embedded. However, it is a standard Act of Parliament (The Brennan Committee’s Report and Recommendation for a Human Rights Act 2012). In this perspective, the ACT permits more flexibility and constant improvement in the manner of protecting the community’s rights. It ensures that there is no sacrifice of human rights in the pursuit of other community objectives.
Among the clearest outcomes of the ACT Bill of Rights is the ability to improve the quality of lawmaking. The ACT has potential upshots in major areas of Australian legal practice, including constitutional, administrative, immigration, criminal, and family law (Kinley 1998). The ACT has ensured that human rights issues receive due consideration in the framing of policy and novel legislation (Byrnes, Charlesworth & McKinnon 2009). It lays its focus on the Legislative Assembly and the communities as opposed to the courts. Hence, the processes of human rights protection are contained within the Assembly. Before enacting any human rights, a commission of the Assembly ought to report about the issues of human rights as the bills dictate.
Weaknesses ACT Bill of Rights
The ACT Bill of Rights has not made a significant effect in protecting human rights. This owes to the verity that since its enactment, it has not been able to attract considerable public attention, and its functioning is not always manifest to the broader community. Some sections of the government have not yet been familiarized with the ACT and its implications in protecting human rights. In this milieu, the ACT has operated in subtle ways to improve the status of human rights.
A major flaw in the ACT Bill of Rights is its inability to protect the cultural, social, and economic rights, which are essential within the contemporary Bill of Rights. It does not meet the requirement of democracy, which is the protection of the rights of minorities (Williams 2000). The ACT identifies human rights in the context of political and civil rights bestowed upon individuals. However, it overlooks protection of the rights of the most marginalized and vulnerable populations within the society, such as the mentally ill, and people living in absolute poverty. For instance, the ACT recognizes Aboriginal people as first owners of the land but directs no further rights toward them. It thus fails to protect material interests, which have not been covered under the existing political and civil rights. As Zeffert (2011, p. 215) establishes, cultural, social, and economic rights ought to have the same importance as political and civil rights within the ACT Bill of Rights. Hence, although the ACT is protection of human rights, it has disappointed some people by excluding them.
The ACT Bill of Rights is not wide-ranging to incorporate change. However, it is an initial step in enhancing rights protection. Hence, it is recommendable that as confidence in, and understanding of the ACT Bill of Rights augments, more discussion on how to improve it be considered.
References
Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and, Civics and citizenship education. n.d. Web.
Byrnes, A, Charlesworth, H & McKinnon, G 2009, Bill of Rights in Australia: history, politics and law, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney.
Charlesworth, H & McKinnon, G 2006, Australia’s first bill of rights: the Australian capital territory’s human rights act- law and policy paper 28, Federation Press, Leichardt NSW.
Kinley, D 1998, Human rights in Australian law: principles, practice, and potential, Federation Press, Leichardt NSW.
The Brennan Committee’s Report and Recommendation for a Human Rights Act 2012, Summary of the Brennan Report’s Human Rights Act (Federal Charter). Web.
Williams, G 2000. Bill of Rights for Australia, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney.
Zeffert, H 2011, ‘Time to expand the ACT human rights ACT 2004? Report of the Australian capital territory economic, social, and cultural rights research project’, Australian Journal of Human Rights, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 215-242.