Anita Mackay
Biographic Data
| ID | 4171315 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Anita Mackay |
| GIVEN NAMES | Anita |
| FAMILY NAME | Mackay |
| SIGNATURE | MACKAY A |
| AFFILIATIONS | La Trobe Law School, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4297-9336 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Hyperincarceration and human rights abuses of First Nations children in juvenile detention in Queensland and the Northern Territory
Hyperincarceration of First Nations peoples (both children in juvenile detention and adults in prisons) is a feature common to British settler colonial states. This article focuses on hyperincarceration of one population sub-group in one settler colonial state: children in Australian juvenile detention facilities. The treatment of First Nations children in Australian juvenile detention violates a number of Treaty obligations to which Australia ha…
A human right to daily access to fresh air beyond prisons in Australia
This article considers the international standard of daily access to fresh air, set out by the Mandela Rules/UN Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, and whether it applies beyond prisons in Australia. This standard is part of the obligation to treat all those deprived of their liberty humanely, which is set out in Article 10 of the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights. The article reveals the extent to which this standar…
The Nelson inquest
The 2023 coronial inquest findings into the death of Aboriginal woman, Ms Veronica Nelson, in a Victorian prison represents a high-water mark for the relevance and application of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 to inquests into deaths in custody. The reliance on the Victorian Charter in the inquest was particularly significant because of the detailed findings and recommendations, directed at a wide variety of c…
Preventing torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of children in detention in Australia
This article considers the multitude of inquiries and investigations into the treatment of children in youth detention in Australia over the past five years (2017–2022) as well as examples of practices that constitute torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment under international law (in particular, solitary confinement, use of restraints and force and strip searching). It explores how Australia might move beyond reacting to such tre…
A New Aged Care Act for Australia? Examining the Royal Commission’s Proposal for Human Rights Inclusive Legislation
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (‘RCAC’) revealed that abuse and neglect are widespread in residential aged care facilities (‘RACF’). In 2021, the RCAC’s Final Report recommended that a new Aged Care Act be enacted to replace the Aged Care Act 1997 (Cth), and the new Act explicitly protect the rights of RACF residents. The recommendation included five uniquely formulated rights to be protected, drawing on international huma…
Recent court decisions about the protection of human rights of imprisoned people
The courts have generally not been a very effective tool for protecting the rights of Australians in prison, despite human rights legislation in three jurisdictions (the ACT, Victoria and Queensland). An advancement in protection is represented by the 2021 decisions of the Victorian Supreme Court in Minogue v Thompson [2021] VSC 56 and the Queensland Supreme Court in Owen-D’Arcy v Chief Executive, Queensland Corrective Services [2021] QSC 273, in…
A beginner’s guide to academic integrity and legal referencing using the AGLC
This article is for beginning law students (both undergraduate and graduate). It aims to provide them with an accessible guide to academic integrity requirements (including the implications of academic misconduct for admission to legal practice), legal referencing and the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC) rules they encounter early in their studies
Extending witness intermediary schemes to vulnerable adult defendants
Australian States and Territories continue to reform criminal procedure to provide assistance to vulnerable witnesses in an attempt to ensure they provide the best possible evidence. In response to the 2017 recommendations by the Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’s Criminal Justice Report, there has been a consistent move towards provision of witness intermediaries. Provision exists for such assistance in eve…
Locking up the locked up
Despite being the second Australian jurisdiction to introduce legislative human rights protections in 2006 (Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act (Vic)), Victoria has failed to bring the legislation governing juvenile detention (the Children, Youth and Families Act (Vic)) in line with the human rights protections contained in the Charter. This was brought to the fore with the Victorian Government’s decision to detain children in a prec…
Towards Human Rights Compliance in Australian Prisons
Imprisoned people have always been vulnerable and in need of human rights protections. The slow but steady growth in the protection of imprisoned people’s rights over recent decades in Australia has mostly come from incremental change to prison legislation and common law principles. A radical influence is about to disrupt this slow change.
Human rights guidance for Australian prisons
In 2018, the Corrective Services Administrators’ Council updated the Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia (2012), renaming them the Guiding Principles for Corrections in Australia. This was an opportunity to ensure alignment with the 2015 United Nations Mandela Rules. However, the Guiding Principles are less aligned with the Mandela Rules than the 2012 Guidelines were. That is, they represent a step backwards. This article examines th…
A Shift in the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s Jurisprudence on Marriage Equality? An Analysis of Two Recent Communications from Australia
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has not considered whether the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (‘ICCPR’) encompasses a right to marry a person of the same sex since 2002 in Joslin v New Zealand. In Joslin v New Zealand the Committee determined that the right to marry contained in article 23(2) of the ICCPR referred only to opposite-sex marriage, and it foreclosed any separate claim based on the general right of nond…
Article 10(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Australian prisons
Article 10(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights requires that ‘[a]ll persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person’. There is a body of international law that elaborates on its requirements. Article 10(1) and domestic legislation that incorporates this requirement have direct implications for how managers and staff within prisons behave towa…
The relevance of the United Nations Mandela Rules for Australian prisons
In 2015, the United Nations updated the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and named them the Mandela Rules. The Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia were based on the previous version of the Rules. This article outlines Australia’s non-compliance with the rules and need to update the Guidelines in five areas: (1) imprisoning people with cognitive disabilities who have not been convicted, (2) solitary confinement, (…
The human rights implications of smoking bans in closed environments
Legal Challenge to the Smoking Ban at Thomas Embling Hospital
Human rights law compliance in prisons
The conditions in Australian prisons reveal that Australia is failing to comply with our international human rights law obligations as they apply to prisons. It is enlightening to compare this with the way the Nordic countries — regarded by some criminologists as having an ‘exceptional’ approach to imprisonment — comply with the same international legal obligations. This article argues that Finland provides comprehensive domestic legal protection…
Stubbing Out Smoking in Prisons
If you are a smoker, or imagine yourself to be one for a moment, how do you think you would feel if you were not allowed to smoke in your own home? Then add to this scenario that you have to spend the majority of your time in your home so you cannot distract yourself from the nicotine withdrawal symptoms1 by keeping busy at work, or going out to exercise; nor are you able to easily access a smoking cessation program or nicotine replacement therap…
The relevance of the United Nations Mandela Rules for Australian prisons
In 2015, the United Nations updated the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and named them the Mandela Rules. The Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia were based on the previous version of the Rules. This article outlines Australia’s non-compliance with the rules and need to update the Guidelines in five areas: (1) imprisoning people with cognitive disabilities who have not been convicted, (2) solitary confinement, (…
Article 10(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Australian prisons
Article 10(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights requires that ‘[a]ll persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person’. There is a body of international law that elaborates on its requirements. Article 10(1) and domestic legislation that incorporates this requirement have direct implications for how managers and staff within prisons behave towa…
A New Aged Care Act for Australia? Examining the Royal Commission’s Proposal for Human Rights Inclusive Legislation
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (‘RCAC’) revealed that abuse and neglect are widespread in residential aged care facilities (‘RACF’). In 2021, the RCAC’s Final Report recommended that a new Aged Care Act be enacted to replace the Aged Care Act 1997 (Cth), and the new Act explicitly protect the rights of RACF residents. The recommendation included five uniquely formulated rights to be protected, drawing on international huma…
Locking up the locked up
Despite being the second Australian jurisdiction to introduce legislative human rights protections in 2006 (Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act (Vic)), Victoria has failed to bring the legislation governing juvenile detention (the Children, Youth and Families Act (Vic)) in line with the human rights protections contained in the Charter. This was brought to the fore with the Victorian Government’s decision to detain children in a prec…
Human rights law compliance in prisons
The conditions in Australian prisons reveal that Australia is failing to comply with our international human rights law obligations as they apply to prisons. It is enlightening to compare this with the way the Nordic countries — regarded by some criminologists as having an ‘exceptional’ approach to imprisonment — comply with the same international legal obligations. This article argues that Finland provides comprehensive domestic legal protection…
Human rights law compliance in prisons
The conditions in Australian prisons reveal that Australia is failing to comply with our international human rights law obligations as they apply to prisons. It is enlightening to compare this with the way the Nordic countries — regarded by some criminologists as having an ‘exceptional’ approach to imprisonment — comply with the same international legal obligations. This article argues that Finland provides comprehensive domestic legal protection…
Stubbing Out Smoking in Prisons
If you are a smoker, or imagine yourself to be one for a moment, how do you think you would feel if you were not allowed to smoke in your own home? Then add to this scenario that you have to spend the majority of your time in your home so you cannot distract yourself from the nicotine withdrawal symptoms1 by keeping busy at work, or going out to exercise; nor are you able to easily access a smoking cessation program or nicotine replacement therap…
The human rights implications of smoking bans in closed environments
Legal Challenge to the Smoking Ban at Thomas Embling Hospital
Article 10(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Australian prisons
Article 10(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights requires that ‘[a]ll persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person’. There is a body of international law that elaborates on its requirements. Article 10(1) and domestic legislation that incorporates this requirement have direct implications for how managers and staff within prisons behave towa…
The relevance of the United Nations Mandela Rules for Australian prisons
In 2015, the United Nations updated the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and named them the Mandela Rules. The Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia were based on the previous version of the Rules. This article outlines Australia’s non-compliance with the rules and need to update the Guidelines in five areas: (1) imprisoning people with cognitive disabilities who have not been convicted, (2) solitary confinement, (…
A Shift in the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s Jurisprudence on Marriage Equality? An Analysis of Two Recent Communications from Australia
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has not considered whether the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (‘ICCPR’) encompasses a right to marry a person of the same sex since 2002 in Joslin v New Zealand. In Joslin v New Zealand the Committee determined that the right to marry contained in article 23(2) of the ICCPR referred only to opposite-sex marriage, and it foreclosed any separate claim based on the general right of nond…
Towards Human Rights Compliance in Australian Prisons
Imprisoned people have always been vulnerable and in need of human rights protections. The slow but steady growth in the protection of imprisoned people’s rights over recent decades in Australia has mostly come from incremental change to prison legislation and common law principles. A radical influence is about to disrupt this slow change.
Human rights guidance for Australian prisons
In 2018, the Corrective Services Administrators’ Council updated the Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia (2012), renaming them the Guiding Principles for Corrections in Australia. This was an opportunity to ensure alignment with the 2015 United Nations Mandela Rules. However, the Guiding Principles are less aligned with the Mandela Rules than the 2012 Guidelines were. That is, they represent a step backwards. This article examines th…
Extending witness intermediary schemes to vulnerable adult defendants
Australian States and Territories continue to reform criminal procedure to provide assistance to vulnerable witnesses in an attempt to ensure they provide the best possible evidence. In response to the 2017 recommendations by the Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’s Criminal Justice Report, there has been a consistent move towards provision of witness intermediaries. Provision exists for such assistance in eve…
Locking up the locked up
Despite being the second Australian jurisdiction to introduce legislative human rights protections in 2006 (Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act (Vic)), Victoria has failed to bring the legislation governing juvenile detention (the Children, Youth and Families Act (Vic)) in line with the human rights protections contained in the Charter. This was brought to the fore with the Victorian Government’s decision to detain children in a prec…
Recent court decisions about the protection of human rights of imprisoned people
The courts have generally not been a very effective tool for protecting the rights of Australians in prison, despite human rights legislation in three jurisdictions (the ACT, Victoria and Queensland). An advancement in protection is represented by the 2021 decisions of the Victorian Supreme Court in Minogue v Thompson [2021] VSC 56 and the Queensland Supreme Court in Owen-D’Arcy v Chief Executive, Queensland Corrective Services [2021] QSC 273, in…
A beginner’s guide to academic integrity and legal referencing using the AGLC
This article is for beginning law students (both undergraduate and graduate). It aims to provide them with an accessible guide to academic integrity requirements (including the implications of academic misconduct for admission to legal practice), legal referencing and the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC) rules they encounter early in their studies
A human right to daily access to fresh air beyond prisons in Australia
This article considers the international standard of daily access to fresh air, set out by the Mandela Rules/UN Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, and whether it applies beyond prisons in Australia. This standard is part of the obligation to treat all those deprived of their liberty humanely, which is set out in Article 10 of the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights. The article reveals the extent to which this standar…
The Nelson inquest
The 2023 coronial inquest findings into the death of Aboriginal woman, Ms Veronica Nelson, in a Victorian prison represents a high-water mark for the relevance and application of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 to inquests into deaths in custody. The reliance on the Victorian Charter in the inquest was particularly significant because of the detailed findings and recommendations, directed at a wide variety of c…
Preventing torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of children in detention in Australia
This article considers the multitude of inquiries and investigations into the treatment of children in youth detention in Australia over the past five years (2017–2022) as well as examples of practices that constitute torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment under international law (in particular, solitary confinement, use of restraints and force and strip searching). It explores how Australia might move beyond reacting to such tre…
A New Aged Care Act for Australia? Examining the Royal Commission’s Proposal for Human Rights Inclusive Legislation
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (‘RCAC’) revealed that abuse and neglect are widespread in residential aged care facilities (‘RACF’). In 2021, the RCAC’s Final Report recommended that a new Aged Care Act be enacted to replace the Aged Care Act 1997 (Cth), and the new Act explicitly protect the rights of RACF residents. The recommendation included five uniquely formulated rights to be protected, drawing on international huma…
Hyperincarceration and human rights abuses of First Nations children in juvenile detention in Queensland and the Northern Territory
Hyperincarceration of First Nations peoples (both children in juvenile detention and adults in prisons) is a feature common to British settler colonial states. This article focuses on hyperincarceration of one population sub-group in one settler colonial state: children in Australian juvenile detention facilities. The treatment of First Nations children in Australian juvenile detention violates a number of Treaty obligations to which Australia ha…
Law (18 works) · Political science (18 works) · Law (17 works) · Human rights (13 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (9 works) · Criminology (7 works) · Prison (7 works) · Publishing (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (6 works)