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The ASU Human Rights Committee is a group of ASU officials who coordinate the ASU's activities in relation to human rights issues.
ASU Human Rights Committee members include (click on their name to send them an email):
Greg McLean - ASU Assistant National Secretary - Committee Convenor
Lita Gillies - ASU Victorian Authorities & Services Branch
Debbie Butler - ASU Western Australian Branch
Graeme Kelly - ASU NSW United Services Branch (USU)
Sean Kelly - ASU Tasmanian Branch
The Death Penalty
A current project undertaken by the Committee is seeking ways to protect Australians from the death penalty, both in Australia (no laws exist to prohibit it) and overseas.
You can sign the petition online or download the paper petition.
Related ASU news item: ASU launches human rights petition to outlaw the death penalty, 7 August 2009
In late 2009, the Federal Government introduced the "Crimes Legislation Amendment (Torture Prohibition and Death Penalty Abolition) Bill 2009". The Bill contains two key measures:
- First, it enacts a specific Commonwealth torture offence in the Commonwealth Criminal Code, to operate concurrently with existing offences in State and Territory criminal laws.
- Second, it amends the Commonwealth Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973 to extend the application of the current prohibition on the death penalty to State laws, to ensure the death penalty cannot be introduced anywhere in Australia.
The overarching purpose behind these amendments is, in the spirit of engagement with international human rights mechanisms, to ensure that Australia complies fully with its international obligations to combat torture and to demonstrate our commitment to the worldwide abolitionist movement.
Click here to read the full second reading speech by Attorney General Robert McClelland.
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