The UQ Pro Bono Centre and Community Legal Centres Queensland recently held a Masterclass event on the changes to the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 for legal practitioners in the community legal assistance sector.
At this event, there were short presentations from ATSILS, the @Institute of Urban Indigenous Health, Legal Aid Queensland, the Queensland Human Rights Commission, The University of Queensland and Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion.
ATSILS’ Kate Greenwood and Pree Sharma presented to the group on key changes to vilification laws in Queensland. It is hoped that this event will help equip civil lawyers to understand key changes to the legislative framework so that they can best assist their clients with discrimination and vilification matters once the changes come into effect next year.
This week our Principal Legal Officer, Greg Shadbolt attended a ceremony to mark the raising of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags outside the QEII Courts of Law Complex in Brisbane.
The event was held on 09/02/2023 and presided over by Her Honour, Chief Justice Helen Bowskill. The raising of the Aboriginal flag and the Torres Strait Islander flag acknowledges the original owners and custodians of the land and waters in and around the whole of the State of Queensland.
From 09/02/2023 forward, the flags will permanently fly alongside the Australian and Queensland flags as a symbol of recognition and respect and to recognise our shared history.
Please be advised that as of the close of business today (30 June 2021), the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (QLD) Ltd will no longer be providing legal assistance and community legal education services to communities throughout the Torres Strait Region and Northern Peninsula Area (NPA).
From 1 July 2021, The Torres Strait Regional Authority has appointed – Queensland Indigenous Family Violence Legal Service (QIFVLS) to deliver community legal education services and QIFVLS has also been engaged to provide interim legal services for communities Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Area Regions.
On this day in 1948 the members of the United Nations General Assembly, including Australia, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Fast forward to 2020, and in Queensland we now live in a State that has committed to putting people first through the introduction of the Queensland Human Rights Act 2019.
The historic Queensland Human Rights Act 2019 introduced by the Palaszczuk State Government draws on international human rights norms and recognises that every person has human rights and the right to enjoy them without discrimination.
Under the Act the distinct cultural rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are protected and Queensland is the first Australian jurisdiction to specifically list this right in legislation.
Understand your rights!
To access resources designed specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples visit The Queensland Human Rights Commission website.
https://www.qhrc.qld.gov.au/your-rights/for-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-people
Putting People First
View the first Annual Report on the operation of the Queensland Human Rights Act
Learn more about Murri Court with this great new explainer video from the Queensland Sentencing and Advisory Council.
The Murri Court delivers a culturally appropriate court process that respects and acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
It is a combination of support, action and ownership that sees Elders and Respected people from the community work closely with the Murri Court magistrates, the defendant and their legal representatives to help keep families together and enable offenders to make better choices by addressing the underlying issues that contribute to their offending.
Doing Justice Differently focuses on informing Queenslanders about the specialist courts and programs. For more information visit:
https://www.sentencingcouncil.qld.gov.au/about-sentencing/doing-justice-differently/murri-court
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (QLD) Ltd is appalled at the state of play for children and juveniles currently languishing in police watch houses across Queensland. It is totally unacceptable that such vulnerable young people are being subjected to this type of traumatic treatment whilst under the care of the state. Holding kids in these facilities is extremely dangerous and simply creates an unsafe environment where another death in custody is more likely to occur due to human rights abuses.
The Australian Labor Party announce critical funding measures to address the disadvantage experienced by First Nations people in the justice system.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (QLD) Ltd (ATSILS) has welcomed the funding commitments announced today by The Australian Labor Party (ALP) in relation to addressing family violence and the disadvantage experienced by First Nations peoples in the justice system.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (QLD) Ltd welcomes the report and recommendations of the Australian Law Reform Commission’s ‘Pathways to Justice – Inquiry into Incarceration Rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ tabled in Parliament today.
ATSILS CEO Shane Duffy said, “This report is yet another validation of the extreme disadvantage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face day to day when coming in contact with the justice system and presents clear, evidence based solutions that can address the disproportionate rate at which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are incarcerated.”
“The recommendations handed down in this report provides yet another opportunity for all levels of government to turn their rhetoric into action and work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations to implement real change and create safer communities” said Mr Duffy.
“Back in 1991 the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody also found that an unfair and discriminatory justice system was failing our people and fuelling over-incarceration. It offered comprehensive solutions that could affect change through its 339 recommendations, but these were left on the shelf largely ignored and unimplemented by governments. Fast forward almost 3 decades later and here we are today grappling with an even more complex and rapidly growing problem so shameful the Federal Government has labelled it a ‘National Disgrace’. We can’t let this history of inaction continue to repeat and drop the ball on this again,” Mr Duffy said.
Research commissioned by ALRC shows the magnitude of the crisis we are dealing with today with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men found to be 14.7 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-Indigenous men, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women found to be 21.2 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-Indigenous women. Between 2006 and 2016 imprisonment rates have increased by 41%. The report noted that Although Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults make up around 2 per cent of the national population, they constitute 27 per cent of the national prison population.
As a matter of priority and in line with our national peak body (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services) we call on Governments to:
- Implement a National Justice target as part of Close the Gap framework.
- Promote justice reinvestment through redirection of resources from incarceration to prevention, rehabilitation and support, in order to reduce reoffending and the long-term economic cost of incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
- Engage and empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to provide basic universal services and adequately resource innovative community led solutions.
- Abolish mandatory sentencing, which disproportionately affects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and increasing more culturally appropriate diversionary options and community-based alternatives.
- Reform laws so that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are not sent to prison for minor offences such as offensive language or unpaid fines.
- Fix bail and sentencing laws so that a person’s cultural experience can be taken into account.
- Adequately resource and provide funding certainty to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, Community Legal Centres and Legal Aid Commissions more broadly. Ensuring access to justice for vulnerable community groups fundamentally requires sufficient, sustainable and ongoing funding for legal assistance providers.
- Enact mandatory Custody Notification Systems in partnership with every ATSILS.
Media Contact: Josh Herd for Shane Duffy, CEO Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service Qld, email josh.herd@atsils.org.au or phone 0439 561 775.
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