Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian Greens believe that universal human rights are fundamental and that they must be respected in all countries, in all regions and for all people. That's why it's so important that we use this platform that we've got here in the parliament to highlight the attacks on human rights that are occurring both here in Australia and around the world. We must call out those attacks on human rights and highlight the incredible work of activists, campaigners and those who are fighting for justice in every country.

I want to start tonight here in Australia. Australia is currently undergoing its universal periodic review through the UN Human Rights Council. Last time I spoke on human rights in this place, I mentioned the campaign to raise the age of legal responsibility. Another crucial issue that I want to touch on tonight is the protection that Australia offers to LGBTIQ+ communities. Commenting on the recommendations that Australia received in the current universal periodic review, Equality Australia said:

The UN has praised Australia for delivering on marriage equality but heeded our call that no LGBTIQ+ person be left behind. Amidst a review into its overall human rights record, Australian Governments have been told to lift their game on equality for LGBTIQ+ people, particularly for trans and intersex Australians.

Among the recommendations that Australia received were recommendations to: end harmful practices, including forced and coercive medical interventions, to ensure the bodily integrity of children with intersex variations; ensure free and timely access to appropriate health care for all, including LGBTIQ+ people, children and adolescents where the young person has sufficient maturity to provide informed consent; and ensure that, in gender reassignment cases, appropriate measures are taken regarding identity documents.

It's very appropriate that tonight I draw attention to these because of the shameful motion that was passed through this Senate today which was an attack on the human rights and the very identity of trans people. It was the sort of garbage that I would expect from some senators in this place, but I did not expect the government to support it. It was appalling, that condoning of trans-phobic and completely unsupportive language. It was just an appalling attack that I think this government should be ashamed of for supporting with that motion today.

It was particularly tragic that it happened on the day when we also had a gathering of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for LGBTIQ Australians, which was a wonderful gathering this evening. It had politicians from right across the political spectrum and was our first gathering in over a year. It would have been so lovely to have been at that gathering this evening without the pall of the appalling motion that passed through the Senate this afternoon hanging over us.

I now want to move on to the human rights situation in Cambodia, which has been devastating for human rights and democratic freedoms. Sadly, the dictatorship in Cambodia has taken advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to tighten its grip on power and not to care for the populace. Human Rights Watch said in their recent summary of the situation there that Cambodian authorities filed unsubstantiated charges of incitement, conspiracy and other offences to enforce its crackdown, and that activists, union leaders, online critics and others face escalating intimidation, threats and arbitrary arrests. Over 30 opposition activists were detained as of November 2020, while between July and September at least 14 youth and environmental activists were charged with baseless incitement charges for peaceful protest activities.

I want to use tonight to call on the Cambodian authorities to abandon their repression of public and democratic voices and to stop attacking peaceful opposition parties. The Cambodian government should be working for the welfare of its citizens, including doing everything possible to vaccinate as many citizens as safely as possible. If the Cambodian government is receiving international assistance to address this crisis then those international aid organisations, as well as the government, must assure that that assistance goes towards responding to the pandemic and is not diverted inappropriately.

I now want to move on to the situation in Bangladesh. I had the privilege recently of meeting with members of the Bangladeshi diaspora community here in Australia, and they were incredibly concerned about the human rights situation in Bangladesh. Again, Human Rights Watch summarised that Bangladeshi authorities are arbitrarily arresting government critics under their draconian Digital Security Act, stifling civil society, independent media and human rights activists. There are serious and numerous allegations of torture, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances by security forces, which continue to operate with near-complete impunity.

I want to call on the Bangladesh government to respect and protect its citizens and residents and their human rights. Again, it must support democratic debate, not stifle it with arbitrary arrests and torture. In turn, here in Australia there is action that we can take. We must progress swiftly our proposed Magnitsky legislation so that we can create a human-rights-based sanctions regime with clear implications for those who are undermining human rights, including financial asset freezes and travel bans, as appropriate.

And now I want to move to the Philippines. In my role as the Australian Greens foreign affairs spokesperson, it has been a great privilege over the last few months to have participated in a project called the 'Investigate PH' project. It's an initiative of people from all over the world who are concerned about the state of human rights in the Philippines. We have held independent investigations into human rights violations in the country, to further substantiate the landmark 2020 report of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights on the Philippines. I have been a commissioner overseeing this project, and tonight I met with other commissioners on the project and with members of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet Jeria. The first report of the Investigate PH project is being launched tonight at midnight.

This report highlights three areas of concern: that political repression by state forces has actually intensified and become more brazen since the UN report of June last year; that the newly passed Anti-Terrorism Act, which was enacted in July last year, as well as the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, which was established by executive order in December 2018, have provided institutional mechanisms that facilitate these human rights violations; and that domestic remedies and mechanisms to address violations continue to be lacking.

Tonight I just want to share with you one story from the report, amongst the many which have been meticulously documented by researchers talking to people affected by the extrajudicial killings and arrests, including families and survivors. This is the story of Zara Alvarez. She was a human rights defender. She was a paralegal for Karapatan, a human rights organisation, and a research and advocacy officer for the Negros Island Health Integrated Program. Her work involved assisting with legal cases of political prisoners and documenting rights violations in impoverished communities. She was arrested on trumped-up charges and imprisoned from October 2012 to July 2014. Eventually the charges were dismissed for lack of evidence, in March 2020. After her release, she continued her human rights work, but in 2018 she was tagged as a terrorist on a list of 649 names, in a court petition to designate individuals as terrorists. On the list were many human rights defenders, including a UN special rapporteur. Alvarez's name and all except two others were eventually removed from this list, but afterwards she continued to experience threats and intimidation. Then her name appeared on a police hit list in 2018. Four others on the list were then murdered. Because of these threats, in 2019 she applied for a court protection order, which was denied by the Court of Appeals. Then, on 17 August last year, she was shot and killed by an unidentified assailant, who fled by motorbike. She became the fifth person on the hit list murdered and the 13th human rights worker of Karapatan slain under President Duterte. Minutes after her death, the regional secretary general of Karapatan received a text message from an unknown number saying, 'Don't worry; you're next.'

This is what's going on in the Philippines at the moment. I really want to thank Peter Murphy, the chair of Investigate PH; my fellow commissioners; and all of the researchers who contributed to this work. I want to say to the people of the Philippines: we see you, we hear you and we share your pain. We will not give up on you. I will continue to use my platform in this place to highlight the extraordinarily awful situation currently in the Philippines.