Founded in 1963, the charter of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties is to protect the equal rights of all citizens (as long as they don’t infringe the rights and freedoms of others) and oppose all or any abuse or excessive power by the State against its people.
The Council for Civil Liberties has a committee elected by volunteers whose primary role is to influence public debate and government policy on a range of human rights issues. The goal of the Council is to secure amendments to laws, or changes in policy, where civil liberties are not being fully respected.
Another role of the Council is to listen to individual complaints and, through volunteer efforts, help members of the public with civil liberties problems. The Council prepares submissions to government, conducts court cases defending infringements of civil liberties, engages regularly in public debates, produces publications, and conducts many other activities.
Current issues range from the bill of rights, the death penalty, prisoners issues, free speech, sniffer dogs, double jeopardy, freedom of information, the right to protest, ATSI (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders) rights, asylum seekers, drug reform and privacy.
Read more about NSW Council For Civil Liberties: Terrorism and Civil Liberties
Famous quotes containing the words council, civil and/or liberties:
“I haven’t seen so much tippy-toeing around since the last time I went to the ballet. When members of the arts community were asked this week about one of their biggest benefactors, Philip Morris, and its requests that they lobby the New York City Council on the company’s behalf, the pas de deux of self- justification was so painstakingly choreographed that it constituted a performance all by itself.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“In the case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of ... powers not granted by the compact, the States ... are in duty bound to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)