Human Rights Violations During Covid in Australia

Observations

Mar 12, 2025

A new scathing report has been published by the Australian Human Rights Commission
Collateral Damage - What the untold stories from the COVID-19 pandemic reveal about human rights and Australia
Emergency was declared in Australia March 18, 2020.

Human Tolls on the people of Australia

A man who moved to Norway in 2019 said he felt completely abandoned by Australia when he was locked out from returning.
A woman was separated from her terminally ill mother for 14 days in quarantine when flying into Australia during Covid, by the time she got out, she only had 6 days to say goodbye.
A pregnant woman felt pressured to take the vaccine under the threat of job termination. After vaccination she suffered a stillbirth at 17 weeks. The hospital wouldn’t allow the father to enter the hospital while the woman was left to grieve her dead baby alone.
Education and information access were cut off from kids. People with disabilities struggled to access services. Domestic violence victims could not escape their abuse.

The Human Rights Commissioner acknowledged, “While the pandemic response saved lives, it came at a heavy cost. Families were unable to say goodbye to loved ones, women were trapped in violent households, communities were left completely isolated, older people died alone, and women had to give birth to stillborn babies alone.
The government needs to come up with an emergency response framework to ensure that Human Rights are prioritized in future crisis. There needs to be a balance between individual freedoms and public health measures.