Activist Legal News and Updates
All the latest updates from Melbourne Activist Legal Support (MALS) as well as news for activists from Victoria, Australia, and around the world.
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training
Legal observer training workshop
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Train as a MALS legal observer and help protect the right to protest!
Legal observing is suitable for people of all experience levels and abilities.
Our practical workshops are led by experienced trainers to equip you with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to be a legal observer. - Saturday 7 December
- 11am-3pm
- City Library, Melbourne
Bookings are ESSENTIAL and spaces are LIMITED, so get in quick!
If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].
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fundraising campaign
#FundTheFrontline of human rights protection!
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MALS has launched a #FundTheFrontline campaign aiming to raise $10,000 to support our grassroots high-impact human rights protection work, strengthen frontline human rights advocacy, and increase the resilience and capacity of Victoria's vital social and environmental justice movements.
#FundTheFrontline donations will enable us to: - train more legal observers so we can field more LO Teams at more protests
- build our capacity to collect human rights evidence, publish reports, make legal referrals, and support activists who are targeted because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, or political stance
- produce activist legal information and education resources and provide 'Know Your Rights' training to hundreds of new activists
- hold more police accountable for misconduct and excessive force, and push back against anti-protest laws and expanding police powers
Donations can be made online, including automatic monthly donations, or start a conversation with us about how you can make a tax-deductible donation over $500 at [email protected].
Help us boost our #FundTheFrontline campaign!
Please share our #FundTheFrontline social media posts on Instagram and X/Twitter with your friends, colleagues, and networks whenever you see them all through November!
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legal action against police
Activists sue police over alleged assaults at 2023 trans-rights rally
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Three activists are suing Victoria Police claiming a police officer physically assaulted them at a trans-rights rally in March 2023.
Footage from the rally shows the Public Order Response Team (PORT) officer dragging and punching the activists in the throat, face, and back of the head, leaving them with serious injuries.
Lawyers for one of the activists claim that the PORT officer refused to provide his first name or spell his surname during a telephone call with the activist before hanging up on him.
The lawsuits accuse the police of violating the activists' human rights and of physically assaulting them using unreasonable, disproportionate, and grossly excessive force.
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research
Research finds Australia's civic freedoms undermined by restrictive laws and stifling of protests
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In their latest research brief on civic space in Australia, international human rights research organisation CIVICUS Monitor has called out the ongoing erosion of civic freedoms in Australia due to increasing anti-protest laws and the stifling of protests.
Drawing on accounts from Australian civil society groups including MALS, CIVICUS Monitor has raised concerns about the restriction of protest, targeting of climate action and pro-Palestine protesters, and arrests of legal observers, highlighting that these actions contravene Australia's international human rights obligations according to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which the country is a party to.
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protest permits
Australia's largest climate action protest to go ahead despite NSW Supreme Court refusing protest permit
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Anti-democracy protest permit regimes are once again in the news after the NSW Supreme Court found in favour of NSW Police to reject Form 1 protections for Rising Tide's People’s Blockade of the World’s Largest Coal Port in Newcastle in November.
Organisers have vowed to go ahead with the protest saying their Form 1 application was not about permission, but whether or not police would have additional powers.
In Victoria, police and government figures have been repeating calls for a similar protest permit regime to be implemented in Victoria despite, despite significant criticism from the community:
• MALS made the argument why protest permits should never be introduced in Victoria in The Case Against Protest Permits in Victoria.
• civil society organisations from across the country published an open letter to Victorian Labor Premier Jacinta Allen supporting her opposition to protest permits and reiterating that protest permit systems 'infringe upon internationally accepted human rights and place an untenable burden on communities, courts and police [and] if they are ever imposed by a government in the state, they will be used to suppress lawful protests'.
• Maria O'Sullivan, Associate Professor of Law at Deakin University, wrote about why protest permits are a bad idea and might even be unlawful by undermining protest as a basic human right.
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IMARC Class Action Opt Out Notice
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On November 2024, the Supreme Court of Victoria made orders that notice be given to group members of their rights to opt out of the IMARC Class Action which alleges that police officers’ conduct at the IMARC Protest was an unreasonable, unlawful and disproportionate use of force constituting battery and assault, and also a breach of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic). You are a group member in the IMARC class action if you: - were present at the IMARC Protest at the Convention Centre in Southbank, Melbourne on 30 October 2019, between 11.44am and 12.35pm; and
- suffered harm as a result of being sprayed with OC foam by police officers between around 12.10 to 12.35pm.
If you fit this description, then you automatically are a group member in the class action. The Court has ordered that any group member who does not wish to participate in the class action must opt out by 4pm, 6 December 2024. Please visit the Phi Finney McDonald website to read the Opt Out Notice issued by the Court which explains the opt out process in detail, including what it means if you choose to opt out or stay in the class action. It is important that you read this document carefully as it may affect your legal rights in the IMARC Class Action.
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united nations reports
Experts urge UN States to protect human rights defenders, safeguard civil & political rights
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Human rights experts have highlighted serious global concerns around repression of the right to protest, criminalisation of human rights defenders, and restrictions on the right to expression at the 79th session of the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee.
A report by the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association has found that stigmatising narratives undermine the right to assembly, lead to serious human rights violations, and weaken democracy.
The critical role of human rights defenders (HRDs) is acknowledged in a report from the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, which urges States to establish national frameworks to protect HRDs from criminalisation, ensure thorough investigations of attacks on HRDs, and support accountability measures when HRDs' rights are violated.
Attacks on journalists, limitations on access to information, and restrictions on advocacy for the rights of Palestinian people present serious threats to freedom of expression according to a report by Special Rapporteur on the promotion and the protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. The report follows a joint statement from ten Special Rapporteurs emphasising threats imposed by Western States on protesters and restrictions on civil society in the context of the Gaza war.
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mals membership
Get involved- become a member of MALS!
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MALS defends civil and political rights by training activists, creating and sharing resources on the right to protest in Victoria, training and fielding Legal Observers to monitor and report on police actions, and linking activists with supportive law firms and community legal centres.
Becoming a MALS member means you can contribute to shaping our campaigns, participate in planning and decision-making, and help increase our impact as we protect the right to protest!
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