Making human rights complaints to ACAT
The ACT Government wants to allow people to take human rights complaints to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT) for a legally binding decision. This could mean a change to the relevant legislation.
About the reform
The government has committed to expanding the ACT’s human rights complaints model to include a pathway to ACAT. A discussion paper outlines options the government is considering for the design of this ACAT pathway.
You can read the discussion paper [PDF 456kB]. A Word document version [DOCX 220kB] is also available.
The paper gives a summary of:
- the current options for dealing with alleged breaches of human rights in the ACT
- what other states and territories do about human rights complaints
- possible models for complaints to be referred to and determined by ACAT.
The paper has three main discussion questions:
- Should the ACAT pathway work separately to the existing cause of action to the Supreme Court?
- What remedies should be available where a human rights breach is proved?
- How should human rights breaches should be dealt with when raised in other proceedings (so‑called ‘piggyback’ claims)?
The government will use your feedback in its work on establishing an ACAT pathway for human rights complaints.
Why it’s important
Reforming the Human Rights Act to include an ACAT pathway for complaints aims to:
- give a low-cost and accessible option for people to resolve their complaints
- allow for legally binding orders to be made by ACAT in response to human rights complaints
- be more consistent with how other complaints are dealt with, such as discrimination complaints
- give ACT residents a pathway to reasonably enforce their human rights.
Next steps
To give feedback on the discussion paper you can email a written response to CivilConsultation@act.gov.au.
You have until Friday 21 August to give your feedback.
We will publish a report summarising all of the feedback we received to this page. We will not publish your individual submission.
What we’ve achieved
In 2021, a petition “No Rights Without Remedy” called for an accessible way for people to enforce their rights under the Human Rights Act. The Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety made one recommendation in its inquiry report on the petition.
The committee recommended that:
“the Government support and enact the terms of the petition to create a system that mirrors the current approach with respect to discrimination complaints”.
In its response, the government:
- agreed to allow complaints about breaches of the Human Rights Act to go to the ACT Human Rights Commission for private mediation
- agreed in principle to allow complaints about breaches of the Human Rights Act to go to ACAT for resolution if mediation is unsuccessful.
The Human Rights (Complaints) Legislation Amendment Act 2023 allows people to make complaints about alleged breaches of human rights directly to the ACT Human Rights Commission.
Agencies involved
Contact us
If you have any questions about the discussion paper or the consultation process, please contact CivilConsultation@act.gov.au.