More than 80 Australian human rights leaders, including former Australian Human Rights Commissioners, have called on the Commonwealth Government to commit to public, independent and merit-based selection processes for senior Australian Human Rights Commission appointments.
A letter coordinated by the Australian Human Rights Institute at UNSW, Sydney, and Amnesty International Australia has been sent to Attorney-General Michaelia Cash detailing the concerns of its signatories over the Government’s recent hand-picked appointment of the Australian Human Rights Commissioner and outlines a new suggested process for selecting senior members of the Commission.
Director of the Australian Human Rights Institute Professor Justine Nolan said that the government’s current selection process threatens to undermine the independence and legitimacy of the Australian Human Rights Commission and could lead to a downgrading of the commission’s rating by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI).
“Australia is due for its accreditation review in early 2022, and the current selection process for its Human Rights Commissioner puts this ‘A status’ in jeopardy,” Professor Nolan said.
“A status downgrade can severely damage the legitimacy of the Australian Human Rights Commission by affecting its participation in the UN Human Rights Council and voting rights in GANHRI, not to mention people’s confidence in its long-term ability to effectively protect human rights.
“If we cannot ensure the process to appoint a Human Rights Commissioner is fair, what does this say about the fate of human rights in Australia?”
Amnesty International Australia National Director, Sam Klintworth, said public confidence in the Human Rights Commission’s independence was more important than ever.
“We’ve seen during the pandemic that Australians’ concerns about human rights have never been more top-of-mind, so public trust in our institutions and agencies and their independence is absolutely essential.
“The Human Rights Commission is an independent agency whose work holds the Australian government to account - its independence must be assured. Without a transparent appointment process there is a very real concern that confidence in that agency and its work will be irreparably undermined.
“The Human Rights Commission has been influential in its work on race and sex discrimination and Indigenous rights among many other areas and to threaten its capacity for impartial scrutiny is alarming.”
The letter’s signatories recommend the process for senior appointments at the Commission should include publicising vacancies to maximise the number of potential candidates, promoting broad consultation externally from the community and subject matter experts, and internally from the senior leadership of the institution. It also suggests candidates should be assessed on the basis of pre-determined, objective and publicly available criteria, and selected candidates should serve in their individual capacity and not be representative of any other organisations.
“Between its disgraceful abandonment of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and now its failure to comply with proper process requirements in appointing to the Australian Human Rights Commission, Australia has forfeited its moral right to lead on national human rights institutions in UN forums, a position it has held for 30 years,” said former Australian Human Rights Commissioner Chris Sidoti.
A copy of the letter and its signatories can be viewed here.
MEDIA:
Drew Sheldrick
Communications Manager
Australian Human Rights Institute
e: d.sheldrick@unsw.edu.au
Danielle Veldre
Media Lead
Amnesty International Australia
e: danielle.veldre@amnesty.org.au