eCite Digital Repository
Senator Paterson’s Same Sex Marriage Bill: Incompatible with International Human Rights
Citation
Hilkemeijer, A, Senator Paterson's Same Sex Marriage Bill: Incompatible with International Human Rights, AUSPUBLAW, Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, UNSW, Australia, 15 November 2017 (2017) [Magazine Article]
![]() | PDF Pending copyright assessment - Request a copy 139Kb |
Official URL: https://auspublaw.org/2017/11/senator-patersons-sa...
Abstract
Two days before the release of the result of the Same Sex Marriage Survey, Liberal Senator James Paterson made public a Bill that would allow anyone who has a strong belief in ‘traditional marriage’ to refuse to provide goods and services in relation to a same sex marriage. This Bill meets the demands of the religious right as expressed in the popular press, academic literature, government inquiries and the courtroom. These demands are alarming in their implications for Australia’s multicultural liberal society.
This post argues that the Paterson Bill has no foundation in international human rights law, and indeed is at variance with legislation and court decisions in countries with legislative or constitutional human right protections. The post is divided into three sections. First, I deal with the parts of the Bill regarding refusal of the provision of goods and services in light of human rights treaties and the decisions of international and national courts. This analysis demonstrates that the Bill is premised on an unjustifiably broad notion of religious freedom.[1] Secondly, I demonstrate that the conscientious objection analysis relied on by Senator Paterson is a flawed analogy. Finally, the Bill contains some unrelated protections – including for parents to withdraw children from class if the subject is objectionable to them – which have no basis in the human rights jurisprudence of other Western democracies.
Item Details
Item Type: | Magazine Article |
---|---|
Keywords: | human rights, discrimination, religious freedom |
Research Division: | Law and Legal Studies |
Research Group: | Public law |
Research Field: | Constitutional law |
Objective Division: | Law, Politics and Community Services |
Objective Group: | Justice and the law |
Objective Field: | Law reform |
UTAS Author: | Hilkemeijer, A (Ms Anja Hilkemeijer) |
ID Code: | 122670 |
Year Published: | 2017 |
Deposited By: | Law |
Deposited On: | 2017-11-22 |
Last Modified: | 2017-11-22 |
Downloads: | 0 |
Repository Staff Only: item control page