Civil rights

ALTERNATIVE LABELS
Civil liberties
NARROWER TERMS


Discussion paper

Independent review of the Ageing and Disability Commissioner Act 2019: discussion paper

This review is being conducted to determine whether the policy objectives of the 2019 Ageing and Disability Commissioner Act, created to help protect vulnerable adults with disability and older people, remain valid and the terms of the Act are still appropriate to help meet those...
Report

Freedom in the world 2022

This report evaluates the state of freedom in 195 countries and 15 territories during calendar year 2021. The report assesses the real-world rights and freedoms enjoyed by individuals, rather than governments or government performance per se. Political rights and civil liberties can be affected by...
Guide

Big data and national security: a guide for Australian policymakers

Data abundance, digital connectivity and ubiquitous technology are redefining national security and the way governments protect individual rights and freedoms. This analysis examines Australia’s policy options in a world defined by big data.
Report

Attitudes to a post-Covid Australia

This report explores the extent to which attitudes to COVID-19, lockdowns and vaccination have changed, and what sort of post-pandemic future Australians expect.
Report

Freedom in the world 2021

This report highlights that as COVID-19 spread across the world during the year, governments across the democratic spectrum repeatedly resorted to excessive surveillance, discriminatory restrictions on freedoms like movement and assembly, and arbitrary or violent enforcement of such restrictions by police and non-state actors.
Report

Surveillance and the ‘new normal’ of COVID-19: public health, data, and justice

This report maps a range of social fault lines and data-related challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has raised. In the process, it highlights some emerging best practices and lessons learned that can guide future emergency responses.
Report

Decision time: activating the rights of adults with cognitive disability

This report is a policy contribution relating to a number of matters that could enable Australia to better recognise and enliven the rights of people who, at times, need support with making decisions.
Report

Beyond the hostile environment

This report assess six different policy options for addressing the adverse impacts of the hostile environment on individuals and communities, and for reforming the current system of immigration enforcement in the United Kingdom.
Report

The future of vulnerability: humanity in the digital age

This report explores how data and technology are shaping the future of vulnerability, particularly through new and evolving forms of inequality, intrusion and insecurity.
Report

Digital authoritarianism, China and COVID

This paper argues that the onus is on democracies to do more to counter the harmful aspects of China’s global technology agenda, and to find ways to harness technology, including artificial intelligence, for the global public good, while preserving hard-won democratic rights and liberties.
Report

Something stronger: truth-telling on hurt and loss, strength and healing, from First Nations people with disability

The purpose of this research paper is to support engagement with the First Nations disability community that is considerate of their cultural values and beliefs on disability and inclusion, and acknowledges the unique traumas arising from their experiences of social isolation, inequality and discrimination.
Report

Examining language and vocabulary used by people living with disability

This report provides a final summary and analysis of findings from commissioned research to deliver a series of focus groups with people living with disability. The purpose of the focus groups was to explore the use of language with respect to violence, neglect, abuse and...
Report

Persons with disability and the Australian Constitution

This report investigates the extent and use of the Commonwealth’s legislative powers that enable it to provide support for and protect the rights of people with disability.
Policy report

Medical capacity: an alternative to lockdowns

This paper argues that lockdowns and social distancing regulations introduced to manage the health concerns associated with COVID-19, have imposed significant social, economic and institutional costs, while being of debatable efficacy.
Report

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: shining a light on social transformation

Australia has not made adequate progress in achieving rights for people with disability since the onset of demands within its community 60 years ago, according to this paper by researchers from the University of NSW Social Policy Research Centre.
Report

Access denied: the human impact of the hostile environment

This report assess the impacts of the hostile environment on individuals and communities. It finds that it has contributed to forcing many people into destitution, has helped to foster racism and discrimination, and has erroneously affected people with the legal right to live and work...
Discussion paper

AUST-INTEL powers: parliamentary oversight of intelligence agencies

This discussion paper argues that parliamentary oversight of Australia’s intelligence agencies is weak, compared to others in the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence sharing alliance between Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, and that increased accountability and oversight measures should be considered.
Guide

Biden vs Trump: an Australian guide to the issues

In this collection of essays, United States Studies Centre experts cover the broad array of policy positions a Biden or Trump Administration could take, and the impact for Australia.
Report

Great responsibility: report on the 2019 pilot inspection of the Adelaide Youth Training Centre (Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre)

This report represents the culmination of two years of development since the Training Centre Visitor (TCV) role and the Training Centre Visitor Unit commenced in 2017.
Report

Young willing and able: youth survey disability report 2019

Mission Australia has analysed their youth survey data with a focus on young people with disability and how their experiences differ to young people without disability. This report offers a deeper understanding of what young people with disability in Australia are experiencing as it relates...
Discussion paper

Rights, morals, dignity: why defending religious freedom matters

This paper advances the argument that behind any rights claim lies a moral claim, and that this moral claim is essentially a claim about human dignity. The paper also argues that defending religious freedom is important because it amounts to defending fundamental claims people wish...
Report

The path of least resilience: autocratic rule and external powers in the Middle East

Despite the Arab uprisings of the last decade, most countries in the Middle East remain in the grip of autocrats, with a widespread view that this is the 'default setting' for the region.
Report

Freedom in the world 2020

Freedom House has found that 2019 was the 14th consecutive year of decline in global freedom. The gap between setbacks and gains widened compared with 2018, as individuals in 64 countries experienced deterioration in their political rights and civil liberties while those in just 37...
Report

Legal rights audit 2019

Fundamental legal rights refer to the protections which are afforded to citizens in a legal system to ensure that just outcomes are the norm and that the state is restrained from abusing its powers in enforcing the law. This report builds on previous work to...
Discussion paper

Education and learning: issues paper

The Royal Commission has identified that abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability in the education sector is an important topic to address. This issues paper on education outlines the Commission's preliminary understanding of the key issues and barriers experienced by students with disability.