Introduction It has been four decades since the first boats carrying Indochinese asylum seekers arrived on Australia’s shores. Since then public perceptions or concerns over unauthorised maritime arrivals continue to strongly influence government policy and to be an emotive and divisive political issue. While the numbers have fluctuated over the years, there was a significant...

The issue of an Australian bill of rights has been placed back on the political agenda by a visiting UN expert. Michel Forst is the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders. After two weeks in Australia, he delivered his preliminary report and recommendations to government yesterday. He says federal officials were not happy with...

The current policy of the Australian Government is that no person who arrives in the country by boat seeking asylum can ever settle in Australia. Instead, anyone who arrives by boat is forcibly taken to offshore 'Refugee Processing Centres,' one of which is on the remote Pacific island of Nauru. The government claims that the...

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.

The Commission has endeavoured to identify options for responding to flight by sea which are consistent with Australia’s international human rights obligations. In publishing this paper, the Commission is seeking to make a positive contribution to this difficult policy area. We have sought to provide the framework for an alternative policy response, rather than an...