Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- List of contributors
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PART I DEFINING, MEASURING AND SEEKING SOCIAL COHESION
- PART II THE DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL COHESION
- PART III INFLUENCES AND RESPONSES IN SEARCHING FOR SOCIAL COHESION
- 11 Unions, the workplace and social cohesion
- 12 Education and social cohesion
- 13 The media and social cohesion
- 14 The problem of sport and social cohesion
- 15 Counter-terrorism and the politics of social cohesion
- 16 Social cohesion and human rights: would a bill of rights enhance social cohesion in Australia
- References
- Index
16 - Social cohesion and human rights: would a bill of rights enhance social cohesion in Australia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- List of contributors
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PART I DEFINING, MEASURING AND SEEKING SOCIAL COHESION
- PART II THE DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL COHESION
- PART III INFLUENCES AND RESPONSES IN SEARCHING FOR SOCIAL COHESION
- 11 Unions, the workplace and social cohesion
- 12 Education and social cohesion
- 13 The media and social cohesion
- 14 The problem of sport and social cohesion
- 15 Counter-terrorism and the politics of social cohesion
- 16 Social cohesion and human rights: would a bill of rights enhance social cohesion in Australia
- References
- Index
Summary
Australia has played a significant role in the international community in the development and enforcement of human rights, and has ratified key international human rights treaties. It may thus seem surprising that Australia now stands alone among democratic Western nations in its reluctance make human rights enforceable through a domestic bill of rights.
Resistance to a bill of rights appears in part to reflect a fear that such an instrument would give undue weight to minority rights, fettering the ability of the democratically elected government to respond flexibly in balancing competing social interests. Opponents of bills of rights argue that any legislative protection of human rights would promote the rights of individuals over the community as a whole and would erode the cohesiveness of Australian society.
In his Australia Day address in 2006, the Prime Minister lauded the social cohesion of Australia as the crowning achievement of the nation. At the same time, he questioned the merit of ‘further entrenching the language and culture of rights in our public discourse’ and specifically rejected calls for a bill of rights, stating that:
A Bill of Rights would not materially increase the freedoms of Australian citizens. It will not make us more united, indeed I believe it would lessen our ability to manage and to resolve conflict in a free society. It would also take us further away from the type of civic culture we need to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.
(Howard 2006b)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Social Cohesion in Australia , pp. 191 - 203Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
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