Castan Centre for Human Rights Law

Author: Marius Smith

  • This is how educating kids with disability must change

    This is how educating kids with disability must change

    By Marius Smith Today we are launching our findings from an exhaustive investigation into the education of children with disability in Victoria’s mainstream government schools. How we are failing children with disability Based on almost 100 interviews with parents, former students, school staff and others, as well as a detailed review of relevant laws and policies,…

  • Australia has finally achieved marriage equality, but there’s a lot more to be done on LGBTI right

    Australia has finally achieved marriage equality, but there’s a lot more to be done on LGBTI right

    By Paula Gerber, Monash University It took a long time, but on Thursday Australia became the 26th country to achieve marriage equality. The LGBTI community is euphoric and relieved with this hard-fought victory. But there is also trauma from the drawn-out postal survey campaign, which saw attacks on rainbow families and communities. It left many…

  • Watch our new video on discrimination

    Watch our new video on discrimination

    By Marius Smith After twelve months of writing, producing and editing, our second series of Have You Got That Right? is completed, and episode 1 has been released. This series will focus on nine topical human rights issues, including self determination, eviction, freedom of expression, bullying and the right to strike. Over the course of this…

  • Australia gets a rigorous human rights review in Geneva

    Australia gets a rigorous human rights review in Geneva

    By Marius Smith and Sarah Joseph We were lucky enough to be on hand in Geneva overnight to witness Australia’s appearance at the UN Human Rights Council as part of the Universal Periodic Review. More than 100 nations reviewed Australia’s human rights record and made approximately 300 recommendations on how Australia can strengthen human rights protection.…

  • Questions submitted in advance of Australia’s Universal Periodic Review

    By Marius Smith As Australia prepares to submit itself to the Universal Periodic Review over the next few hours, you can get an idea of what topics might come up by looking at the countries that have submitted questions to Australia in advance. More than a dozen countries have done so, and we have broken them…

  • The World Reviews Australia’s Human Rights Record

    110 states have signed up to speak at Australia’s review, which is the fifth greatest number of states for this entire cycle.