HRC concluding observations ICCPR

ALSWA Submission to the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department – November 2009 This submission provides comment and reference to previous ALSWA submissions that address specific issues highlighted in the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s (UNHRC) concluding comments on Australia’s compliance with the International Convention of Civil and Political Rights

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High juvenile involvement in the Criminal Justice System WA

ALSWA submission to Commonwealth House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs – December 2009 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youths are disturbingly overrepresented in the juvenile justice system. This submission briefly discusses the historical context surrounding the disparities and intergenerational poverty experienced

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Stop and Search Laws

ALSWA Submission to the Legislation Committee of the WA Legislative Council – January 2010 ALSWA provided this submission to urge the WA Government to withdraw the Bill, which proposed to give the Western Australian police powers to stop and search people in designated areas without reasonable suspicion.

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Selection, Eligibility and Exemption of Juror’s

ALSWA Response to the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia’s Discussion Paper – February 2010 This submission provided comment on the juror selection process and eligibility for jury service of people from various specific occupations. ALSWA supports the retention of five peremptory challenges for all accused to

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Aboriginal Housing Legislation Amendment Bill

ALSWA Submission to the WA Parliament – March 2010 This submission considers the Aboriginal Housing Legislation Amendment Bill 2009 (WA) (‘the Bill’) which was developed to implement a new Commonwealth approach to Aboriginal housing driven by the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing. The Bill proposed

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Doctrine of Discovery Intervention

Intervention of the Indigenous Peoples Organisation of Australia at UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues – April 2010 This intervention elaborates on the history and impacts of the legal fictions of the Doctrines of Discovery in the USA and Terra Nullius in Australia on Indigenous peoples. It

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Youth in Detention report and intervention

Intervention of the Indigenous Peoples Organisation of Australia at UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues – April 2010 This intervention and report concerns the alarmingly high and ever increasing rates of incarceration of Indigenous children and youth in Australia and around the world. It notes the legacy

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Future direction and role of the Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee

ALSWA Submission to the Commonwealth Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee – April 2010 This submission encourages the Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee (‘the Committee’) to extend its role to specifically consider and address Australia’s international obligations in relation to the treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

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Making Our Prisons Work

ALSWA Submission to the Community Development and Justice Standing Committee of the WA Legislative Assembly – April 2010 In this submission, ALSWA calls on the Western Australian Government to reform its approach to criminal justice by engaging in Justice Reinvestment initiatives aimed at reducing offending, rather than

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