The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has called for the redraft of a new Bill to amend the powers of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) raising a number of human rights concerns.
The Commission said the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Amendment Bill 2020 contained a number of changes to current legislation, including a new ‘questioning and apprehension framework’, which would allow ASIO to detain children as young as 14 years of age for questioning.
AHR Commissioner Edward Santow said security and law enforcement Agencies needed robust powers to maintain national security and protect the Australian community from terrorism, but the Bill went much further than necessary in restricting basic human rights.
“Any national security law must not limit human rights more than is absolutely necessary and proportionate to achieving that aim,” Mr Santow said.
“This Bill could result in children as young as 14 having their human rights limited without reasonable justification under international human rights law,” he said.
“Several of the Bill’s proposed limitations have not been demonstrated to be necessary and proportionate.”
Mr Santow said the Commission recommended the Bill not proceed in its current form.
“It needs stronger oversight and other human rights safeguards,” he said.
“The Bill would simultaneously expand ASIO’s questioning powers while limiting oversight of those powers, including by limiting the subject’s right to legal representation during questioning and enabling prescribed authorities to remove, at their discretion, a lawyer deemed to be ‘unduly disrupting’ questioning.”
He said the Commission recommended that any person subject to a questioning warrant be afforded the right to independent legal representation at all stages of the questioning process.
The Commission’s comments on the ASIO Amendment Bill can be accessed at this PS News link.
