Page 187 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 December 2008
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Australians, including Canberrans, are able to continue to enjoy human rights, to continue to have their fundamental rights protected now and into the future.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (12.08): I join with Ms Bresnan, Mr Stanhope, Mr Seselja and others in commending this motion. It is fitting that we debate this motion today, given that it is this place which was the first of all Australian states and territories to legislate to give formal statutory effect to human rights in the territory and to effectively establish a bill of rights for our own community, based on, of course, the rights outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
That declaration was adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948. As other members have recognised and noted, the declaration came about following the depravity, inhumanity and complete devastation of the Second World War. In that time, the declaration sought to ensure that never again were human beings as individuals treated with the complete and utter contempt and depravity that we saw in that horrible conflict.
In the period since this declaration, little over half a century, it is fair to say it has had a profound impact on the standards by which human rights and human behaviour are measured. It has allowed a myriad of cultures and people of profoundly diverse backgrounds to unite with a consistent understanding of what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to according people dignity and respect. It has provided a very valuable pathway to building a world where human beings can fulfil their full potential and an opportunity for the world to work against oppression and see peaceful co-existence.
There has been quite a bit of discussion—locally, nationally and internationally—about the value of such declarations. Some say that it has achieved little, given its possibilities, and others note that rogue states—states that do not give proper regard to the rights and responsibilities of their citizens—feel bound to defend themselves when they are accused of being in breach of the declaration. And that, in and of itself, is a measure of its success as an important political and moral statement. Whatever the assessment, we cannot underestimate the impact that the document has had. It has been translated into all the languages of the world; it is an international bill of human rights that has had an immense impact on, and greatly influenced the development of, human rights at the local, national and international level.
Ms Bresnan’s motion recognises and pays tribute to those Australians who have played leading roles in the development and adoption of these important instruments of international law.
I want briefly to acknowledge the very important work of a leading member of the Australian Labor Party in this regard, Dr Herbert Vere Evatt, who was a leader of the Australian Labor Party, a foreign minister in an Australian Labor Party federal government, and who became the first President of the United Nations General Assembly. HV Evatt, or Doc Evatt as he was known, was instrumental in driving the establishment of the United Nations and in the making of this very important declaration of rights. He and many other Australians before and after him
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