The escalation in online misogynist attacks and harassment against women should add yet another impetus for the Federal Government to introduce a Federal Human Rights Act. 

Witness the sexist and sometimes violent fulminations against the appointment of the new Chief of Army Lieutenant General Susan Coyle.

Of course these kinds of attacks can’t be seen in isolation. Launching their 2025 State of the World’s Human Rights report on 21 April 2026 Amnesty International stated that ‘Predatory attacks on multilateralism, international law and civil society marked 2025’ and that ‘The alternative on offer is a racist, patriarchal, unequal and anti-rights world order’.

Social cohesion is the new mantra in Australian politics: an understandable rhetorical response to repugnant manifestations of racist hatred in Australia and in other countries.

In relation to racism, the Australian Human Rights Commission has already provided one framework in 2024: 63 recommendations for governments, business and community organisations to address all forms of racism in Australia.

Calls for social cohesion should also reference sexism and misogyny and other forms of discrimination increasingly experienced - often on an intersectional level - by many marginalised individuals and groups.

A positive and practical pathway to social cohesion is yet to be mapped. WEL urges the Federal Government to consider a Human Rights Act as a tangible way forward to tackling fragmentation and division.

An Australian Human Rights Act would be underpinned by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Australian endorsed UN conventions, such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) would also play an integral part.

An Australian Human Rights Act would build these consensual democratic values into policy, legislation and regulation and open an avenue to justice for everyone whose rights are infringed.

For example, access to reproductive health care, particularly abortion, is very limited in remote, rural and regional Australia. A Human Rights Act including a right to health could compel federal government action to remedy this injustice and enable women without access to initiate action for redress.

Similarly a right to security of person could help women experiencing violence take action to seek redress from governments who have implemented inadequate measures to prevent sexual violence.

WEL is excited to belong to the Human Rights Law Centre led campaign committee which is driving the push for a Federal Human Rights Act.

We are also involved in the campaign for a NSW Human Rights Act, led by Australian Lawyers for Human Rights. We endorsed the campaign’s International Women’s Day letter advocating a Human Rights Act to the Premier. 

Over the next few months WEL’s new Human Rights Policy and Advocacy Group is planning to work closely with the National and NSW Human Rights Act campaign to help make a persuasive case that achievement of gender equality depends on a Human Rights Act.

Last but not least in these perilous times - an Australian Human Rights Act would demonstrate to the world our continued and proud commitment to international law and to the values identified in the UN Declaration, which Australia was amongst the first to endorse.