Melissa Castan

Does the Right to Birth Registration Include a Right to a Birth Certificate

International human rights law has long recognised the right of every child to have their birth registered. However, what is less clear is what this right encompasses. For example, does the normative content of the right to birth registration include a right to a birth certificate? This is a question that has become very relevant to Indigenous Australians many of whom are experiencing difficulties acquiring a birth certificate. This article argues that the right to birth registration, as set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, implicitly includes the right to a birth certificate. This conclusion is reached following an analysis of the work of the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Did you know : Citations, sources and references

Have you ever wanted a quick and dirty guide to the main principles underlying the methods and motives for correct use of footnotes and citations in law?

The need for reform of Australia’s birth registration systems

1 Professor, Law School, University of Queensland. 2 Joan Rydon, ‘The Electorate’ in John Wilkes (ed), Forces in Australian Politics (Angus & Robertson, 1963) 184. 3 Holmdahl v AEC (No 2) [2012] SASFC 110. See Anne Twomey, ‘Compulsory Voting in a Representative Democracy: Choice, Compulsion and the Maximisation of Participation in Australian Elections’ (2014) 13 Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal 283. 4 Josh Butler, ‘David Leyonhjelm Proposes Abolishing Compulsory Voting’, Huffington Post, 2 March 2016 (Leyonhjelm is a libertarian senator). Voluntary Voting for Referendums in Australia: Old Wine, New BottleProof exists that Law Reform Commissions can still discharge a distinct and effective role in the reform of law and legal policy. In February 2017, some months after the essays that make up this important book were presented at an Australian National University Conference, the Attorney General issued terms of reference for an inquiry by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) into the incarceration rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Judge Matthew Myers was appointed part time Commissioner, an expert advisory panel of academics and practitioners was installed, discussion paper drawing together the findings of previous inquiries was issued in July, 149 consultations were undertaken in the community, 121 submissions were received and by December an incisive and plainly written report analysing the causes and including 35 recommendations for reducing the rate of incarceration was delivered.Anyone looking at the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) would be justified in thinking that company law in Australia was both wholly statutory and an instrument of public regulation. Although Anglo-Australian company law may have originally grown out of the law of partnership and been built, largely by the courts, from the material of the private law, the growth over the last 30 years in the complexity, range of matters covered and sheer volume of the Corporations Act would seem to confirm the intuition that Australia’s company law is now both statutory and public. However, while there is no denying the shift in the source of company law, the particular form corporate regulation now takes is actually making Australian company law more, rather than less, private.1 Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University. 2 R v Birmingham & Gloucester Railway Co (1842) 3 QB 223. 3 US Department of Justice, ‘Siemens AG and Three Subsidiaries Plead Guilty to Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Violations and Agree to Pay

Re-evaluating Legal Citation in a Digital Landscape

450 Million in Combined Criminal Fines’ (Press Release, 15 December 2008). Improving the Effectiveness of Corporate Criminal Liability: Old Challenges in a Transnational World1 Lecturer, Business School, Charles Darwin University; PhD candidate, School of Politics and International Relations, ANU. This research is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship. 2 Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), Inequality in Australia 2015: A Nation Divided (Sydney, 2015) 8, www.acoss.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Inequality_in_Australia_ FINAL.pdf (viewed 24 April 2016). 3 Factor income is the income arising from the factors of production – land, labour and capital. For the changes in shares over time, see Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), ‘Income at Current Prices, December Quarter 2015’ in ABS, 5206.0 – Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, Dec 2015, www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/ abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/ 5206.0Main%20 Features 4Dec%2

Indigenous Australians’ Access to Birth Registration Systems: A Breach of International Human Rights Law?

Increasing access to digital works and the proliferation of digital genres has changed the way in which we conceive of information, and particularly legal information, including how it is represented within legal citation practice. This article, written by Melissa Castan and Kate Galloway, contributes to the discourse around legal citation in two ways. It first provides a theoretical justification for citation practice as an element of legal information management crucial to effective scholarship, including knowledge creation and dissemination. Secondly, and based on this theoretical foundation, it identifies the challenges facing existing legal citation practice in the face of new media, new representations of legal scholarship, and new objectives for citation practice. Finally, in this article we distil foundation principles for citation to integrate these diverse elements. To illustrate the application of these principles, the article closes with suggested citation practices designed to enhance the existing framework in this digital landscape.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Cases, Materials, and Commentaries

It has recently been discovered that there are significant numbers of Indigenous Australians who are unable to prove their identity — either because their birth was never registered, or because they cannot satisfy the requirements of the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages for obtaining a birth certificate. The effect is to make such people legally invisible, preventing them from enjoying all the rights of citizenship that the majority take for granted. This article explores whether international human rights law, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, can help redress this problem.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Cases, Materials, and Commentary

PART 1: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION PART 2: ADMISSIBILITY UNDER THE ICCPR CHAPTER 2: THE RATIONE TEMPORIS RULE CHAPTER 3: THE VICTIM REQUIREMENT CHAPTER 4: TERRITORIAL AND JURISDICTIONAL LIMITS CHAPTER 5: CONSIDERATION UNDER ANOTHER INTERNATIONAL PROCEDURE CHAPTER 6: EXHAUSTION OF DOMESTIC REMEDIES PART 3: CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS CHAPTER 7: THE RIGHT OF SELF-DETERMINATION - ARTICLE 1 CHAPTER 8: THE RIGHT TO LIFE - ARTICLE 6 CHAPTER 9: FREEDOM FROM TORTURE AND RIGHTS TO HUMANE TREATMENT - ARTICLES 7, 10 CHAPTER 10: MISCELLANEOUS RIGHTS - ARTICLES 8, 11, 16 CHAPTER 11: FREEDOM FROM ARBITRARY DETENTION - ARTICLE 9 CHAPTER 12: FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT - ARTICLE 12 CHAPTER 13: PROCEDURAL RIGHTS AGAINST EXPULSION - ARTICLE 13 CHAPTER 14: RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL - ARTICLE 14 CHAPTER 15: PROHIBITION OF RETROACTIVE CRIMINAL LAWS - ARTICLE 15 CHAPTER 16: RIGHT TO PRIVACY - ARTICLE 17 CHAPTER 17: FREEDOM OF THOUGHT, CONSCIENCE AND RELIGION - ARTICLE 18 CHAPTER 18: FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION - ARTICLES 19, 20 CHAPTER 19: FREEDOMS OF ASSEMBLY AND ASSOCIATION - ARTICLES 21, 22 CHAPTER 20: PROTECTION OF THE FAMILY - ARTICLE 23 CHAPTER 21: PROTECTION OF CHILDREN - ARTICLE 24 CHAPTER 22: RIGHTS OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION - ARTICLE 25 CHAPTER 23: RIGHTS OF NON-DISCRIMINATION 0 ARTICLES 2(1), 3 AND 26 CHAPTER 24: MINORITY RIGHTS - ARTICLE 27 PART 4: ALTERATION OF ICCPR DUTIES CHAPTER 25: RESERVATIONS, DENUNCIATIONS, AND DEROGATIONS PART E: ANNEXES ANNEX A: INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS ANNEX B: FIRST OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE ICCPR ANNEX C: SECOND OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE ICCPR ANNEX D: HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE MEMBERS (PAST AND PRESENT) ANNEX E: TABLE OF OPTIONAL PROTOCOL CASES