Date: 11 February 1994 Author: The Hon Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG, President, Court of
Appeal, Supreme Court of NSW (1984 - 1996) Type: Speech Subjects: Human Rights, Australia Organisation: Bond University Location: Bond University, Queensland
FRIDAY 11 FEBRUARY 1994 7 P.M.
Gold Coast, Friday Australia's human rights record is a legitimate
matter of international concern. This was said tonight by Justice Michael Kirby
when delivering a Focus 2000 address at BondUniversity. Justice Kirby said that
the days when individual countries or states could offend international
principles on human rights or judicial independence were gone. He said that Australia
was just as much obliged to conform to international law as was Iraq
or Somalia. The
world was watching closely our response to Aboriginal claims to traditional
land. Justice Kirby said that it was the legitimate role of judges to call
attention to departures from basic international principles. If they did not do
so, nobody else might do so:
"There are still some
Australian backwoodsmen who hanker for the old days of isolation and
unquestioned national sovereignty. But those days disappeared with the mushroom
cloud over Hiroshima.
The world today is linked by jumbo jets, cellular telephones, interactive
computers and many common problems. We cannot solve AIDS in our own individual
countries. We cannot effectively respond to the dilemmas of the Human Genome
Project in the legislature of an AustralianState. We cannot
respond to the new empire of intangible power - the global media and its
handful of owners - on our own. Like it or not, the world is increasingly
thrown together. We must therefore develop an increasingly effective machinery
of international government. Inevitably this will mean that nation states,
including our own, will lose some of their sovereignty. This is happening
already. It is a natural historical process. It finds reflection in politics.
But it also finds reflection in the law. That reflection includes a universal
concern about the respect for human rights and for the independence of judges
and other like decision-makers. That is why, when there are assaults in one
country upon these basic principles it is the duty of judges and other lawyers
to point them out, in the hope that the political processes will respond and
correct the wrongs. This is an act designed to ensure that the political
process works in an effective and democratic way", Justice Kirby said.
Justice Kirby responded to criticism by a columnist in the Australian
newspaper directed at his action in speaking at a dinner in Melbourne
upon the abolition of the office of the Commissioner for Equal Opportunity,
held by Ms Moira Rayner:
"We in Australia
used to look with pride at the stability and independence of our judicial and
quasi-judicial institutions. We regarded the sacking of judges as something
that happened only in Third World
countries. Yet in the past five years we have seen the development in Australia
of the practice of getting rid of judges, and other independent office-holders,
by the simple expedient of abolishing their courts and tribunals. This was
achieved by the Federal Labor Government in the case of Justice Staples. It has
been followed with enthusiasm by State Coalition Governments. It is not a
political act to call this development to public attention. The accumulation of
cases is now a source of real concern. How can we expect judges and other
independent office-holders to act with integrity and courage when they know
that if the Government or Opposition do not like what they do, they can be
simply removed by abolishing their position. This would never have happened in
the past. It is a breach of international principles protecting the
independence of judges and lawyers. If judges do not speak up against this
conduct, it will pass unnoticed and we will have lost a precious feature of our
society that helps to guard our liberties."
Future human rights issues
Justice Kirby listed a number of future issues for human rights which, he said,
would find their way onto the agenda of human rights discussion in Australia
and in other countries in the decades ahead. He mentioned:
* The impact on human rights of fundamentalist politics and religion;
* The implications for human rights of complex biotechnological
developments, including the Human Genome Project, which could redefine the very
concept of humanity itself;
* The empowerment of women as an effective means of spreading the principles of
human rights;
* The removal of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in
Australia and in other countries;
* The implications for human rights of the global spread of HIV/AIDS;
* The implications of drug dependence and drug use for basic human rights; and
* The significance of the growth of multinational media empires for the human
right of free expression and of diversity of opinion.
Global media is a new empire large uncontrolled
Of the impact of global media, Justice Kirby said:
"In the past, the empires
of the world were tangible things. A living sovereign - King or Queen - with
fleets and armies. In the future empires will be made of intangible power. Of
electronic signals sent by satellites to dozens of countries simultaneously,
none of which individually has the power to control their impact. Yesterday Mr
Rupert Murdoch was welcomed to India
with more fuss and attention than most Heads of State. He protested surprise.
But the fuss was a reflection of the realisation of the great power now held by
comparatively few people with greater influence upon the world's thinking and
action than virtually any King. We have the United Nations to effect its
imperfect control over tangible sovereigns. But who in the 21st century will
bring the intangible empires of the global media under the discipline of
responsible conduct and answerability to the law and respect for basic rights?
The old adage about absolute power corrupting absolutely has sufficient truth
in it that we should ponder the need for new international responses to the
power of the global media to set the political, social, cultural and economic
agenda. This is an important issue for the coming century. I am not sure of the
solutions. But the beginning of wisdom is a realisation that there is a
problem", Justice Kirby said.
Notes on Speech The above speech will be delivered at
BondUniversity,
Gold Coast, Queensland. For
further information contact the office of the Executive Chancellor, Professor
Harry Messel, tel (075) 951040 or Christine Lau, Community Relations Officer,
Bond University, tel (075) 951 040; fax (075) 951 015.
