Human Rights In Australia

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Human Rights
Anti-Terror Laws
The terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 signalled a dramatic change in how Australia and the World view terrorism and terrorists, and in response the Australian Government has adjusted or introduced new counter-terrorism laws. The most influential bill passed is the 2004 amendment to the 1995 criminal code, which amended the law relating to foreign incursions and recruitment, terrorism offences. The amendments also changed certain crimes that were already covered by our criminal code into acts of terrorism in certain circumstances for example beheading or bombings which were previously under the crime of murder. These Counter-terrorism laws a huge impact on human rights. Such as;
• The right to freedom from …show more content…
The Commission has been critical of attempts to enact counter-terrorism laws without adequate scrutiny of their human rights implications. Making sure counter-terrorism measures comply with Australia’s human rights obligations involves correctly identifying which human rights are non-negotiable and which human rights can legitimately be restricted in certain circumstances. A major issue for human rights is the section of the act which allows for a person to be held for 48 hours under Federal laws and up to 14 days in most States without charge for anyone over the age of 16 years. Due to recent events in New South Wales the act is being amended to include persons over the age of 14 years to be subject to control orders which restrict their movements. Other changes to the act being considered are the right to arrested and detained for an initial period of up to four days without charge, and this may be extended by the courts to up to 28 days (Nicholls, 2015). This is obviously an infringement on our rights to freedom from arbitrary …show more content…
While Manis was holding a Islamic flag and did terrorise the people within the café was it in fact an act of terror under Australian law. Gormley, 2015 as reported by abc.net.au said “He had not established any contact with Islamic State before the siege although some claiming to be from Islamic State adopted Mr Monis's actions and his siege after his death. Manis’s actions were those of an individual with a desire to be know rather than someone acting as a terrorist. However can we consider it an act of terrorism? The siege at Martin Place in December 2014 held the nation’s attention and certainly terrorised a city. While he may not have had direct links to a terrorist organisation and was acting alone these groups were quick to use the attack for their own propaganda. Monis had over many year’s been under some surveillance by ASIO and in the weeks leading up to the attack calls had been received by the National Security hotline about his behaviour yet police did not act. The issue being that he had been there causing problems for so long that he was no longer considered a considerable risk more a nuisance. The laws while they try to cover all situations, these situations are constantly moving and at some
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