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Explainer: what are abortion clinic safe-access zones and where do they exist in Australia?
Flickr photo by jordan_uhl Tania Penovic, Monash University New South Wales recently became the fifth Australian jurisdiction to enact legislation that establishes safe-access zones around abortion clinics. The legislation is a response to picketing of clinics by anti-abortion protesters for more than two decades. These protesters characterise themselves as “sidewalk counsellors” but their conduct has…
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Dutton’s duty: the Minister’s responsibility to provide a safe and lawful abortion
In the absence of comprehensive human rights protection in federal legislation, vulnerable and marginalised individuals have on occasion been able to utilise the law of tort to hold the powerful to account. A notable example is the judgment of Bromberg J in S99 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, handed down in the Federal…
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What’s the child sexual abuse royal commission got to do with the Convention on the Rights of the Child?
By Tania Penovic Sexual abuse is an egregious violation of the rights of the child, causing harms which are profound and often lifelong. Evidence presented before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has revealed that in a range of institutional contexts, children have not been protected from abuse. The Convention on…
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The 2015 Human Rights Report – Harsh treatment of asylum seekers breaches human rights
By Tania Penovic This piece is featured in the 2015 Castan Centre Human Rights Report. We will be featuring the articles on the blog throughout the month of May. Since the Abbott Government’s election in 2013, it has used a military-led response to stop asylum seekers trying to reach Australia by boat. ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’ includes offshore…
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“No advantage” brings no hope
By Tania Penovic The emergence of ‘no advantage’ as a guiding principle in Australian refugee policy is examined below with reference to recent developments in the management of asylum seekers who attempt to reach Australia by boat. On 28 June 2012, the Gillard government announced the formation of an Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers to…
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Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers’ Report (2): Changes to Migration Act sideline human rights
By Tania Penovic The Migration Legislation Amendment (Regional Processing and Other Measures) Bill 2012 was rushed through Parliament this week following the release of the Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers’ report on Monday. The panel’s report recommended that the ‘Australian Parliament should agree, as a matter of urgency, to legislation that would allow for the…
Castan Centre for Human Rights Law 
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