Human Rights Commission to decide whether to intervene in social media ban court challenge
The Australian Human Rights Commission will decide whether to apply for permission to intervene in the Albanian government’s High Court challenge to a social media ban that comes into force within days.
A digital rights group led by 15-year-old teenagers Noah Jones and Macy Neyland and NSW Libertarian MP John Ruddick is calling for urgent measures to prevent the ban, which comes into force on December 10.
Appearing before Senate estimates on Monday, Australian Human Rights Commission Chairman Hugh de Krester acknowledged the urgency of the case and said the Commission would consider intervening.
“It is certain that it will be a very important case in terms of freedom of political communication,” he said.
“We haven’t looked at the cases yet, but it is something we will consider.
“The guidelines will outline the factors we consider when deciding whether to intervene.”
Mr de Krester said individual rights commissioners would meet on Tuesday and likely discuss the Supreme Court objection and whether to intervene.
“You want to be useful in these cases. You want to say what arguments would not have been made effectively if the commission had not intervened,” he said.
“How can we assist the court in its deliberations about taking into account the human rights dimensions of the particular issue they are considering?”
Non-party participants may wish to intervene in court proceedings or assist the court in cases where they have a specific interest.
According to its guidelines, the commission has the authority to intervene in cases involving race, gender and disability discrimination, human rights issues and equal opportunity in employment.
The intervention notification must also be forwarded to the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Australian Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay said the commission would “closely examine the legal arguments” made in the case.
He said the commission was interested in both the positive aspects of the ban and “the human rights concerns that we have”.
“We recognize that human rights are being brought into play through the ban, which is trying to protect children from harm online, but there is also a need to protect children’s rights in terms of their ability to participate, to receive information, to communicate, to be part of the online community,” he said.
“One thing that we are very interested in and concerned about in the Commission is that the social media ban has an impact not only on the human rights of the children who will be directly affected, but actually on the human rights of all Australians through the privacy implications that arise from the introduction of age safeguards to be added to social media accounts.”
