Australia's human rights chief Catherine Branson, QC.
Australia's human rights chief Catherine Branson, QC. Photo: Sahlan Hayes
AUSTRALIA'S human rights chief has warned there are ''real dangers'' in any bid to revisit the United Nations Convention on Refugees after an Opposition spokesman said the agreement did not reflect the current realities of asylum seeker movements.
President of the Australian Human Rights Commission Catherine Branson, QC, said while it was not a perfect set of rules, a great deal of law had been developed around it - and ''there is a lot of evidence that it is working''.
''I believe it is serving the purpose for which it was drafted, perhaps not perfectly, but well enough that we should not abandon it,'' Ms Branson told The Age. ''The UN High Commissioner for Refugees had not asked for it to be redrawn … I think there are real dangers in abandoning it.''
Her remarks came following Coalition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison's suggestion this week that the treaty, approved by the UN in 1951 in the aftermath of World War II, was out of date.
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In particular, he said the document was now ''giving aid and comfort to people smugglers who are able to sell packages to people to sell up and move halfway around the world and seek asylum in the country of their choice''.
Meanwhile, in an interview with The Age to mark her departure from the commission this month, Ms Branson also challenged Coalition proposals to turn back asylum seeker boats.
''The evidence I have seen suggests that turning back boats is not a viable option and it is probably not acceptable to Indonesians.''
But Ms Branson backed the search for appropriate regional ''initiatives'' to ''prevent people taking dangerous voyages on boats that are not fit for the purpose''.