Australian Human Rights Commission
Submission to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – 25 July 2019
Situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies
Recommendation 24: The Australian Government revise the National
Strategy for Disaster Resilience and other relevant policies and
frameworks, to align with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk
Reduction (2015-2030), including to:
a. ensure emergency information and warning systems are fully
available, free and accessible throughout Australia for all
persons with disability
b. provide explicitly for accessibility for and inclusion of people
with disability in all responses to situations of risk
c. require all public services to develop individual and local plans
for the safe evacuation of people with disability in
consultation with people with disability through their
representative organisations.
Recommendation 25: The Australian Government require that all
funding for disaster recovery include provision for new buildings or
buildings requiring refurbishment as a result of natural disasters to
meet the Disability (Access to Premises—Building) Standards 2010.
Equal recognition before the law
Recommendation 26: The Australian Government implement a
nationally consistent supported decision-making framework, as
recommended in the Australian Law Reform Commission’s 2014
report Equality, Capacity and Disability in Commonwealth Laws.
Access to justice
Recommendation 27: The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
extend its data collection to all stages of the criminal justice system
and continue to work with states and territories to improve data
collection to allow for disaggregation by disability, age, gender,
location and ethnicity.
Recommendation 28: All Australian governments develop Disability
Justice Plans to detail the actions they will take to ensure access to
justice for people with disability, including by:
a. reviewing and amending civil and criminal legislation and
procedural rules to ensure a duty to provide procedural
accommodations in all legal proceedings;
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