Human Rights Act 2004

Anyone who belongs to an ethnic, religious or linguistic minority must not be denied the right, with other members of the minority, to enjoy their culture, to declare and practise their religion, or to use their language.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples hold distinct cultural rights and must not be denied the right—

to maintain, control, protect and develop their—

cultural heritage and distinctive spiritual practices, observances, beliefs and teachings; and

languages and knowledge; and

kinship ties; and

to have their material and economic relationships with the land and waters and other resources with which they have a connection under traditional laws and customs recognised and valued.

The primary source of the rights in s (2) is the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, art 25 and art 31.

The primary sources of these rights are the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the United Nations General Assembly, The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, A/RES/76/300 (28 July 2022).

Some aspects of economic, social and cultural rights are considered at international law to be subject to an obligation of progressive realisation.

An international law relevant to interpreting progressively realisable rights is Article 8 (4) of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. That article provides for consideration of the reasonableness of steps taken to progressively realise rights and notes that a range of possible policy measures for the implementation of rights may be adopted.