The adequacy of human rights protection and impact of gaps

This paper was presented to the National Human Rights Consultation Hearings in Canberra on 1 July 2009 as part of a panel providing ‘an overview of those who miss out and fall through the cracks of a fair go for all’. The focus of the presentation is on the views and ideas from particularly marginalised groups that PIAC worked with during the consultation process. These included children and young people, urban Aboriginal people, homeless people and people with mental illness. A common thread running through all these voices was that they had personally experienced breaches of their human rights and that the underpinning principle of respect for human dignity is critical and all too often absent. The presentation touches briefly on the value of human rights education and the fact that this is seriously limited in the absence of enforceable rights.