Indigenous Rights to Land Under the Australian Human Rights Acts

Abstract

This article examines the extent to which that the Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT), the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) and the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) (the Australian human rights acts) protect the rights of Indigenous peoples to their traditional lands. It firstly sets out the rapidly expanding and detailed jurisprudence in international human rights law concerning the rights of Indigenous peoples to their traditional lands. It then considers the provisions of the Australian human rights acts and the jurisprudence concerning their interpretation to come to the conclusion that these statutes should be considered as incorporating the international human rights jurisprudence on Indigenous rights to land. It then concludes that if this jurisprudence contains more extensive rights to land for Indigenous people than existing laws it may open up a new legal frontier that could be of significance for future Indigenous struggles for traditional lands in Victoria, Queensland and the ACT.