Protecting Human Rights and Countering Terrorism: Australia's Contradictory Approaches to Implementing its International Legal Obligations
12 Pages Posted: 11 Dec 2009
Date Written: December 8, 2009
Abstract
Australia has consistently resisted adopting legislation that would directly and comprehensively implement its legal obligations pursuant to multilateral human rights treaties, maintaining that human rights are better protected by democratic legal processes than judicially interpreted bills of rights. This approach has left many human rights very poorly protected by Australian law. In contrast, Australia’s commitment to democratic discussion and deliberation did not impede the hasty adoption of comprehensive legislation implementing its international legal obligations pursuant to Security Council resolutions aimed at countering international terrorism. This legislation has further eroded the already fragile domestic framework for the protection of human rights. The justifications for these contradictory approaches to domestic implementation of international legal obligations are examined in this paper and it is suggested that they may foreshadow the demise of collaborative international law-making and, in its place, the rise of ‘hegemonic’ international law.
Keywords: international law, security council, Australia, human rights, counter-terrorism, obligations
JEL Classification: K00, K19, K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation