2022 Report on the Operation of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities – August 2023

The 2022 Charter Report is divided into sections covering the three arms of government that have responsibilities to uphold human rights: 

• human rights in courts and tribunals 
• human rights in law making  
• the Charter and public authorities.  

Litigation through courts and tribunals provides an important mechanism for individuals and groups to assert their Charter rights, obtain remedies and achieve more rights-compliant outcomes. The Charter also allows the Commission to intervene in court proceedings to assist the court to understand and apply the Charter.  

In 2022, the Commission intervened in the coronial inquest into the death of a First Nations woman while in custody. The Charter Report contains a case study on the Commission’s submissions to the inquest, summarising the human rights engaged by the arrest, remand, custodial management and provision of healthcare to the woman. The coroner found that her death was preventable and made several recommendations to the Victorian Government in his findings report. We are now working with the Department of Justice and Community Safety to develop an implementation framework that can be used to review the government’s progress in implementing the coroner’s recommendations and ensure that the outcomes intended by the recommendations are achieved. 

We would like to warn Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers that this case summary includes the name of a deceased First Nations person. Her name is used with the permission of her family. 

The Charter ensures human rights are considered at every stage of the law-making process in Victoria. All bills introduced into parliament must be accompanied by a statement of compatibility, which provides an overview of any human rights impacted by a bill and why any proposed limitations are reasonable and justified. In 2022 the Victorian Parliament actively engaged with the Charter and contemplating human rights issues during parliamentary debates and in the law-making process – in particular in the areas of Treaty, mental health and affirmative consent.  

Finally, the Commission’s Charter Education Program continued to assist public authorities in building a human rights culture and in acting compatibly with the Charter. The Commission delivers education to a variety of public authorities including across government departments, agencies, statutory authorities, local government and functional public authorities. In 2022 the Commission delivered 29 human rights education sessions to 388 participants. In addition, public sector staff completed 31,649 Charter e-learning modules.