Institutional systems as rights protections: accountability and oversight mechanisms for national security agencies

Accountability and oversight mechanisms for national security institutions are as essential to protecting human rights as any specialised human rights mechanism, perhaps even more so. Australia does not have a national charter of rights, or a national Human Rights Act. It is the only western democracy not to do so. How then are human rights protected in the absence of rights-based mechanisms?

This paper considers the role of independent statutory bodies, parliamentary committees, courts, and officials in regulating the relationship between national security and human rights.

While drawing on Australia as a case study, this paper aims to consider the broader implications of "lessons learned" in accountability mechanisms.