Human Rights Day

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:50): That was very passionate. I like the way you did this. Did you practise in front of the mirror last night? It is appropriate that 10 December is known as simply Human Rights Day and does not carry the usual 'international' or 'world' prefix. Why is that appropriate? Because human rights are about the rights of the individual rather than the nation or the world. They are about the respect each one of us should receive as a matter of course. It is the one day on which we should consider the basic rights of every person we meet.

December 10 marks the 76^th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The document advances and protects the inalienable rights to which every human being is entitled, regardless of their race, colour, religion, sex or nationality. In Australia, human rights are considered and recognised more than in most other countries around the world, but we are not so naive as to believe there is not a long way to go.

We only need to look at the fight that First Nations Australian people have endured just to be treated as equal citizens and, in some cases, many are still not. The same could be said about some minorities in Australia, although the situation is improving by the day. The Australian Human Rights Commission describes human rights as:

…the right to life, the right to a fair trial, freedom from torture and other cruel and inhuman treatment, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the rights to health, education and an adequate standard of living.

We can proudly say that almost all Australians have these rights, but not all, of course, and we cannot stop fighting for their rights while the problem exists. While we still have a homelessness issue, we must keep fighting the fight. It is much less of an issue than in other countries and democracies like the US and, surprisingly, Canada, where thousands sleep rough on the streets of Vancouver every night. But we still have people sleeping rough here. The fact that Australia has a Human Rights Commission is a fair clue that we as a nation cherish the need for human rights for everyone.

A US State Department report released last year found serious human rights violations have occurred recently in Russia, China, Iran and also the allied nations of Israel and Ukraine. It found the list of victims ranged from journalists and public officials to humanitarian volunteers and teachers. These were people just doing their job or, even more disturbing, volunteering their time and efforts to help others. The deprivation of their rights ranged from inhumane treatment and the withholding of medical treatment to torture and, in some cases, execution.

In Iran, 798 civilians were executed in 2023 alone. Their crimes were largely being protesters. In the case of Russia, the report uncovered 77 executions of civilians during arbitrary detention. This is a United States report, and I think we have all seen a violation of human rights in that nation in recent times. That country, like ours, was built to some degree on denying the human rights of others, but at least we, and to a certain degree other democracies, acknowledge the wrongs we have done and tried to fix them.

In the case of the US, recent evidence shows those human rights are shamelessly being eroded once again while authorities watch on. At least in Australia we acknowledge human rights. We have protests held here regularly just outside the doors of this parliament. There was one there only today, attended by thousands of public servants. People get angry, as you would expect in a protest, and sometimes emotions spill over, but they are allowed to happen and nobody is killed for holding them. In some other countries, the protesters would be dragged away and never seen again.

We can be proud of our human rights record that allows people the right to protest, and we have seen many instances where those protests have brought about positive change. We do not need to wait for Human Rights Day to respect and protect the rights of others. Let's just take the time to consider how far we have come, but also how far we need to go to ensure every Australian has basic human rights.