Dear Premier,
Reflecting on International Women’s Day: Our Call for an Inquiry into a Human Rights Act
As civil society organisations working with women and girls across NSW, reflecting on International Women’s Day, we call on the New South Wales (NSW) Parliament to establish an inquiry into a Human Rights Act.
Our call and this statement are explicitly inclusive of all women and girls in NSW - no matter what their background, identity or location - whether we are women and girls with innate variations of sex characteristics, First Nations women and girls, women and girls from culturally, racially, religiously or linguistically diverse backgrounds, cis and transgender women and girls, Sistergirls, non-binary women, women and girls with disability or health conditions, or with any other background, experience or identity.
To achieve gender equality and secure the well-being of all of our communities, we need a comprehensive framework that centres our dignity in decision-making across the NSW Parliament and Government agencies.
Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland have recognised this and have enacted Human Rights Acts. Comparable developed democracies - Canada, New Zealand, the UK - have well developed local Human Rights Acts that help to protect all women and girls as they go about living their everyday lives. These laws deliver concrete benefits in the lives of women and girls - helping us to achieve better decisions in areas like domestic violence, housing, healthcare, education, family, caring, culture and public life.
The recent report of the federal Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights Inquiry into Australia’s Human Rights Framework recommended very clearly that states and territories yet to do so should progress the introduction of a Human Rights Act. South Australia has begun the essential work of catching up by inquiring into the potential for a Human Rights Act.
NSW has fallen seriously behind.
Our Parliament now has an opportunity to establish a parliamentary inquiry into a Human Rights Act for NSW and show people in our state that it is serious about respecting, protecting and promoting women' s rights, for all of our diverse communities across NSW and whether we live in urban, regional, rural or isolated areas.
Consulting with the community will enable all women and girls across NSW to be heard and take part in designing a law that works for us all - no matter who we are, where we live and no matter what our race, religion, age, sex registered at birth, sex characteristics, sexual orientation, gender identity, family and caring responsibilities, employment, relationship status, disability or health status, HIV status or any other background, experience or identity.
It will ensure that NSW begins the essential work of identifying gaps in the protection of all women and girls’ rights, learning from other jurisdictions and identifying the improvements that we can make.
It’s time to come together and build a NSW where every woman and girl has access to dignity, equality and freedom.
*This statement is intended to be inclusive of all of our communities and to recognise all lived experiences of exclusion. It has been developed with support from Trans Justice Sydney.
