What is the project about?

Protecting Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the ACT: models, methods and impact (the ‘ACT ESCR Project’) is a joint project between the ANU (together with the Australian Human Rights Centre at UNSW) and the ACT Department of Justice and Community Safety, supported by a linkage grant from the Australian Research Council. 

The project will assess whether the ACT Human Rights Act 2004 should be amended to include economic, social and cultural rights. The project commenced in May 2009 and will culminate in a major report to the ACT Government next year.

The project is being undertaken at the request of the ACT Government and is an incidence of the government’s 12-month review of the Human Rights Act (see here), which recommended that the issue of ESCR be revisited as part of the five-year review of the legislation.It is anticipated that the project will generate the first comprehensive Australian study of the potential impact of the protection of ESCR in a legislative bill of rights. 

The framework objectives of the project include: 

• Assessing the adequacy of the protection of ESCR in the ACT;
• Examining the possible mechanisms for the protection of ESCR and the appropriateness of those mechanisms in the ACT; and
• Analysing the potential impact of the enforcement of ESCR and the effect on policy-making, service delivery and decision-making processes in the ACT.

What can I find on this website?

This site has information about the progress of the ACT ESCR Project, including news about latest developments and events, publications (forthcoming), and links to useful ESCR resources.

Contact us

Contact the Project
phone:(+ 61 2) 6125 7103
fax: (+ 61 2) 6125 1507
email: acthra@anu.edu.au