Holding Australia to Account through the UN Human Rights Treaty Processes: Civil Society Engagement

In March, I appeared before the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, on behalf of the Mercy Foundation. The Mercy Foundation is an organisation committed to social justice and structural change to create greater social equity and inclusion in the Australian community. Our submission, took the form of a list of questions that the Committee should put to Australia in forming the a list of issues that Australia must ultimately address in its report: the List of Issues Prior to Reporting (LOIPR). It focussed on an adequate standard of living, housing, inequality, and discrimination in those contexts. Australia’s review under the CESCR has just transitioned to the new simplified reporting procedure. Under this new procedure, the State’s report ceases to be the main focus. Instead, prior to reporting, the Committee meets with Civil Society, and with the State, and on the basis of these meetings forms the LOIPR. The State then forms its Report around those issues, and Concluding Observations will later be made by the Committee. Civil society no longer has a full year to respond to the state’s report, and nor does it produce a shadow or parallel report. Civil society participation is front-loaded into the determination of which issues the Committee will examine. To say that the shift to the Simplified Reporting Process caught Australian civil society unawares would be an understatement. Australia’s periodic review fell extremely early in the first session under the simplified reporting procedure. The deadline for submissions to the list of issues prior to reporting had passed in January 2021. The Australian government did not publicise the new process, or call for input from Civil Society as it did in the past reporting cycle. There are currently very few examples of NGO submissions under the simplified process to follow, and it is unclear how the CESCR will regard, or harness, NGO submissions. As such, engaging in the process posed some hurdles. However, it was well worthwhile, with the LOIPR incorporating key concerns expressed in our submission In the event, only the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Mercy Foundation, and one other organisation, appear to have had the opportunity to have input to the list of issues. I will now be working with the Mercy Foundation domestically to use our submissions, and the ongoing reporting process, to press for accountability on human rights to housing and an adequate standard of living, a more equal Australia, and the end to discriminatory policies. The CESCR’s LOIPR for Australia was released on April 7 2022 in E/C.12/AUS/QPR/6, and can be viewed here. The State report is due on the 1st of September.