Australia takes an active and constructive approach to improving human rights standards and systems internationally, which includes engagement at the bilateral, regional and multilateral levels. Australia has a long tradition of supporting human rights globally.
Australia holds regular bilateral human rights dialogues with China, Vietnam and Laos. These provide the opportunity for representations on both individual cases and systemic human rights issues. The 13th Australia-China Human Rights Dialogue was held in Beijing in December 2010, and the eighth Australia-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue took place in Canberra in February 2011. Australia supports the further strengthening of human rights in the region, including through support for the Asia Pacific Forum on National Human Rights Institutions and the ASEAN Inter-Governmental Human Rights Commission.
Active participation in multilateral human rights forums is central to Australia’s human rights advocacy, especially in the UN General Assembly Third Committee and the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). Australia also participates in the Universal Periodic Reviews (UPR) of human rights situations in individual UN member states, and engaged closely on the review of all 47 countries considered in 2011.
Australia has responded positively and constructively to international recommendations on its own human rights situation. Following the UPR of Australia on 27 January 2011, Australia accepted wholly or in part 137 of a total of 145 recommendations.
Statistics contained in the Year Book are the most recent available at the time of preparation. In many cases, the ABS website and the websites of other organisations provide access to more recent data. Each Year Book table or graph and the bibliography at the end of each chapter provides hyperlinks to the most up to date data release where available.
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This page first published 24 May 2012, last updated 11 November 2015
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AUSTRALIA'S HUMAN RIGHTS POLICY
Australia takes an active and constructive approach to improving human rights standards and systems internationally, which includes engagement at the bilateral, regional and multilateral levels. Australia has a long tradition of supporting human rights globally.
Australia holds regular bilateral human rights dialogues with China, Vietnam and Laos. These provide the opportunity for representations on both individual cases and systemic human rights issues. The 13th Australia-China Human Rights Dialogue was held in Beijing in December 2010, and the eighth Australia-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue took place in Canberra in February 2011. Australia supports the further strengthening of human rights in the region, including through support for the Asia Pacific Forum on National Human Rights Institutions and the ASEAN Inter-Governmental Human Rights Commission.
Active participation in multilateral human rights forums is central to Australia’s human rights advocacy, especially in the UN General Assembly Third Committee and the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). Australia also participates in the Universal Periodic Reviews (UPR) of human rights situations in individual UN member states, and engaged closely on the review of all 47 countries considered in 2011.
Australia has responded positively and constructively to international recommendations on its own human rights situation. Following the UPR of Australia on 27 January 2011, Australia accepted wholly or in part 137 of a total of 145 recommendations.