Posted on January 2, 2008 by Iain
I’m thinking about these issues because the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) comes into force in Victoria today. Do I believe in human rights? Of course I do. I think that there should be a certain amount of freedom of speech (whether I agree with what is said or not), and that there should be freedom of religion, and so forth. But I can see that in some circumstances it is not easy. Say there is a group who argue that a certain religious group controls society and that they should be banned from Australia. This is something to which I have a very deep seated revulsion on a personal level. Obviously there is a right on the part of the group to freedom of speech, but there is also a right of the people of that particular religion to be free from vilification and discrimination. How to balance it? I can never quite make up my mind.
Source
One thing that you can be sure of when you read one of LE’s posts is that your torpid brain cells will be roused into action by her argument. Like her latest missive about the new human rights legislation that has just come into force in Victoria. I can’t claim to be right up to speed on the nuances of the legal argument but I do agree that the nub of such issues is all about getting the balance right between competing social needs.
Cheers Comrades
Filed under: Blogging, Ethical questions, Indigenous Issues, Justice, Law, human rights, the Law
Are there any actual responsibilities in this Charter, from what i heard, there are none, perhaps i heard wrong.