FC's National Human Rights Consultation Submission submitted!!

So the Freedom Centre's submission to the National Human Rights Consultation has just been submitted!!

We used your submissions to Faces for Freedom to inform and support our submission. CLICK HERE to read the full submission.

We summarized the main points of your FFF submissions with the following;
• Discrimination and marginalization in the form of heterosexism, homophobia, transphobia and biphobia are interpersonal violations of LGBTTIQ individuals’ (and their families’) human rights and freedom, and therefore impacts our lives in numerous ways.
• Everyone deserves the right to choose who they love and how they identify. Equality requires that LGBTTIQ people receive this right.
• An Australian Human Rights Act was identified as being required to protect the rights of LGBTTIQ people and all Australians equally.
• Diversity of sexuality and gender in Australia is seen as a positive thing that must be protected by a National Human Rights Act. Not having a Human Rights Act that protects the rights of people with diverse sexuality and gender would be a contradiction to the values of Australian culture of a ‘fair go’, freedom and equality.
• Legal recognition of gender and same sex marriage were two key issues that were raised as being rights that people with diverse sexuality and gender currently do not have upheld. We require an Australian Human Rights act to explicitly protect those rights.
• Transphobia was explicitly identified as restricting Transgender, Transsexual and Intersex people’s rights to equality, freedom of expression, dignity, health & well-being, accessibility, recognition before the law, freedom from discrimination and violence, and security of person.
• The UN Declaration of Human Rights was often used as a reference to model some ideals and basic human rights that should be included in an Australian Human Rights Act, however gaps were also highlighted in the UN Declaration. Faces for Freedom submissions expressed the need to explicitly state ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ in articles 2 & 16 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights in order to prevent discrimination and enable the right of all individuals to marry. This was expressed as also necessary in an Australian Human Rights Act.
Currently, Article 2 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights states that all people should be “entitled to the Rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status”. This was seen as inadequate without the explicit distinction of ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’.
Article 16 of the UN declaration of Human Rights states; “Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. “ This too was expressed as inadequate without the additional distinction of ‘sexual orientation’ and ’gender identity’. There was a strong support from FFF submissions that these explicit distinctions should be made in an Australian Human Rights Act.

Or CLICK HERE to read the full submission.