A culture of rights finding its feet: parliamentary human rights scrutiny in the Australian Capital Territory

In developing the Australian Capital Territory's Human Rights Act 2004, the Bill of Rights Consultative Committee argued that 'its primary purpose should be to encourage the development of a human rights-respecting culture'. But what does a 'human rights-respecting culture' look like? Commonly, a 'culture of human rights' is defined as a pattern of assumptions, shared and taught, that human rights must be considered and respected. This overlooks the unstable, impermanent and changeable dimensions of culture, which is continually produced and reproduced through various practices. Through a focus on the consideration of human rights in the process of drafting and scrutinising legislation in the ACT, we argue that we need new ways of understanding how cultures of human rights evolve and are maintained, including the ways in which shared meanings, values and beliefs are constantly changing and can often be used to justify human rights infringements, particularly against marginalised populations.