Elizabeth Evatt provides a synoptic overview of the varying degrees to which Australian governments have signed up to and implemented international human rights treaties. She identifies a range of issues arising from failure to respect the views and findings of independent treaty bodies, turning the executive and the parliament into the sole arbiters of compliance...

This controversial Royal Commission from the 1970s found that many Australian families were failing to protect their most valuable members, and helped change the shape of public discussion around families, gender and sexuality.