Jump to Content

Media Release

November 10 2008

It's Time. A Bill of Rights for Australia

Julian Burnside QC“We have human rights not because we are nice or because we are white or because we are Christian but because we are human.”

In his typically articulate and provocative style, barrister, human rights advocate and philanthropist Julian Burnside QC argues the case for an Australian Bill of Rights in this year’s International Human Rights Day Address, presented by the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre with the endorsement of the International Human Rights Day Committee, at UniSA on Thursday November 13.

"Australia needs a Bill of Rights. The time has passed when we could safely assume that parliament would never pass laws which offended decent values,” Burnside says.

"Justice is one of the deepest yearnings of the human spirit, and one of the most important promises of democracy. When Law and Justice part company, we are betrayed; when Parliament makes unjust laws we are betrayed; when Justice is promised but is placed beyond reach, democracy fails.”

With the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be commemorated on December 10, Burnside defines a modern Bill of Rights, and systematically debunks the arguments put up against their adoption.

“In the wake of the 2020 Summit, the public debate about a bill or charter of rights has restarted. Predictably, the conservative commentators are opposed to one. Their arguments speak in alarmist terms of the horrors that would be unleashed if rights were protected,” he says.

“But modern Bills of Right do not concern themselves with the right to bear arms or the quartering of soldiers. They are concerned instead with the sort of rights recognised by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: equality before the law, the right to life, protection from torture, freedom from forced work, freedom of expression, and so on.”

Director of the Hawke Centre, Elizabeth Ho, noted: “As part of our Centre’s public learning program we want to increase community understanding of the issues around a Bill of Rights.”

“Burnside mounts a compelling case – we are the only Western democracy that does not have such protection and in an era when ethical globalisation is the new buzz phrase, we should be leading by example in securing human rights.”

What           2008 International Human Rights Day Address – a free public lecture
                     It’s Time. A Bill of Rights for Australia
Who            Julian Burnside QC
When          5.45pm, Thursday November 13
Where        Allan Scott Auditorium, Hawke Building,
                     University of South Australia, City West campus
                     50-60 North Tce, Adelaide

To register, click here or phone 8302 0215

Contacts for interview

Media contact

 

top^