Australia’s new Human Rights Commissioner, Edward Santow, will use his first year in office to focus on the treatment of people in detention in Australia.

Commissioner Santow said he hopes the Federal Government will soon announce what it intends to do about the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (known as OPCAT).

Commissioner Santow said he would also focus on human rights issues associated with free speech and with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) communities.