Re-elected Australia government urged to prioritize global human rights News
Thennicke, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Re-elected Australia government urged to prioritize global human rights

In a letter to Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Monday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the re-elected Labour government to leverage its key foreign policies to strengthen human rights globally.

HRW outlined several actions in the letter that the Australian government should take under four main areas of its foreign policy to promote human rights globally and regionally. These four areas are: supporting multilateralism and new human rights standards, amplification of human rights in diplomacy, protecting marginalized people and groups, and supporting accountability for serious human rights violations and international crimes.

In particular, HRW recommended that the Australian government support new treaties on free pre-primary and secondary education, crimes against humanity that include gender apartheid, autonomous weapons systems, and international tax cooperation. HRW noted that Australia’s growing commitment to early childhood education serves as a global example, and that its international support for regulating autonomous weapons and criminalizing gender apartheid would significantly contribute to the adoption of the proposed treaties.

HRW also stated Australia should advocate through diplomatic channels for the release of individuals arbitrarily detained for exercising their fundamental human rights, particularly in countries such as China, Bhutan, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

Additionally, HRW urged the Australian government to impose targeted sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for crimes against humanity against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and for the destruction of democratic freedoms in Hong Kong. It should also publicly condemn the sanctions imposed on the International Criminal Court (ICC) by the Trump administration in the US.

The organization further suggested that Australia ban trade with illegal settlements, as well as impose sanctions on Israeli officials responsible for war crimes, including blocking the entry of aid to Gaza,  following the ICJ’s advisory opinion in July 2024,.

Moreover, HRW recommended that Australia increase its intake of refugees to at least 27,000 annually, in light of the US government’s indefinite suspension of its refugee resettlement program and the growing demand for international protection.

Australia has faced international criticism, especially in relation to the rights of Indigenous peoples, refugees, and asylum seekers. The country ranked 11th out of 142 countries in the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index 2024.

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