African Australian Legal Service

11/11/2023

This week, the High Court ruled that it is unlawful and unconstitutional for the Australian Government to detain people indefinitely in immigration detention, after a successful challenge brought by a person referred to as NZYQ.

The ruling has life-changing consequences for people who have been detained for years without knowing when, or even if, they will ever be released. This is an amazing outcome for people whose lives, families and communities have been affected by indefinite detention and for the Allens legal team and Counsel who represented NZYQ.

The Human Rights Law Centre and UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law were proud to have contributed to the case as amici curiae - friends of the court - to support NZYQ's arguments that indefinite detention is unlawful.

Find out more here:

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

22/10/2023

African descent in Australia under the ‘siege of racism’

Please read this article and follow our page.

The UN working group visited Australia for the first time in December last year. Their task was to evaluate the human rights situation of people of African descent living in Australia.

19/09/2023

So honoured to have represented our organisation ‘Comm Unity Plus’ at the Grants Award presentation today by Victoria Legal Service board (VLSB).

The Grants were presented to the Grantees by Nina Taylor MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Justice on behalf of the Attorney-General; The Hon. Jaclyn Symes.

Our Centre, Brimbank Melton Community Legal Centre has proudly received a funding of $400,000 to deliver African Australian Legal Assistance Project in the next 3 years.

It’s a gratitude to champion this project to improve access to Justice and to develop capacity for new Lawyers from African heritage.

We are very thankful to our partners organisations and schools who have provided support to this great project.

22/07/2023

The Victorian Bar offers a Shadowing Program to connect law students from diverse backgrounds with barristers, and have them shadow them for a few weeks, getting support and advice as they make decisions about their career. Find out more here:

In order to participate in the Program, it is a condition that any participating barrister have appropriate public liability insurance in place in respect of their Chambers.

28/02/2023

Join us next month for a FREE Legal Information Session presented by Brimbank Melton Community Legal Centre.

Learn about your legal rights and responsibilities regarding:
✔️Wills
✔️Power of Attorney
✔️Life Planning

When?
Wednesday 8th March 2023
12.30 - 2.30pm

Where?
📍 commUnity+ HUB
822 Ballarat Road, Deer Park

——

Contact or visit our team to find out more:
E. [email protected]
P. (03)8312 2063

www.comm-unityplus.org.au

02/08/2022

It's great that the government has withdrawn their application in the Hight Court Case that sought to deport First Nations people.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC has withdrawn the High Court case against Mr Shayne Montgomery, which sought to overturn established legal precedent and give the Federal Government the power to deport Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are not Australian citizens from their own country.

Mr Montgomery, whose visa has been reinstated, is now able to live safely with his family and community. Importantly, the High Court’s landmark decision in Love; Thoms stands and will remain undisturbed so that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples cannot be deported from their own country.

Mr Montgomery was born in New Zealand but was adopted at a young age into a Mununjali family in Brisbane. He lives in Australia with his family, including his five children, and community, and is recognised by Elders as a Mununjali man.

In the 2020 High Court decision of Love; Thoms the Court found that the Government does not have power under the Constitution to deport Aboriginal people. In 2021, in the Federal Court, Mr Montgomery successfully challenged his visa cancellation and ongoing detention and was released from immigration detention. However, the Morrison Government chose to appeal to the High Court and sought to challenge the Court’s decision in Love; Thoms, made just two years earlier.

On 28 July 2022, the High Court granted leave to the Federal Government to withdraw the case against Mr Montgomery.

13/07/2022

BREAKING NEWS:

JUST IN: Zimbabwe Moot Team has been declared the champions of Europe Moot Court, becoming the first team to win International Moot Court and European Moot Court champions back to back in less than 30 days. Congratulations to the team. They have made the country and the continent proud once again.




By Akello

12/07/2022

Enough is Enough Campaign by African Young People.. https://fb.watch/ecMZAoUsfC/

Against Knife Crimes....

05/07/2022

Information on Spent Conviction Scheme..

The Spent Convictions Act 2021 provides rules about when a person’s criminal history can be disclosed (revealed). The majority of the Act started on 1 December 2021.

The Act will remove the unfair barriers faced by Victorians who previously committed an offence but have since demonstrated their ability to rehabilitate.

For some kinds of convictions, if a person does not reoffend again for a period of time, disclosure will be protected. When this happens, the conviction is described as being ‘spent’.

This means:

spent convictions will not show up on a police record check (unless an exemption applies)
a person cannot be asked to disclose information about their spent conviction, except in a small number of circumstances where another law permits the question
a person does not have to disclose they have a criminal record if their only convictions are spent, except in circumstances where another law says that the spent convictions scheme does not apply.
Discrimination because of a spent conviction is also prohibited because of changes to the Equal Opportunity Act 2010.

There are penalties for unlawful collection or disclosure of a spent conviction.

Convictions covered by the Act
The Act applies to Victorian convictions for offences that occurred in the past, as well as convictions a person may get in the future. Some overseas convictions can also be spent if they have an equivalent offence in Victoria.

Lots of different convictions can be spent, depending on a person’s age at the time of offending, the type of offending and when it occurred, and the outcome decided by the court. Not all convictions can be spent.

Exemptions that permit disclosure of a spent conviction
Full criminal histories will continue to be disclosed to police, courts and other law enforcement agencies for the administration of the justice system and to protect community safety.

Convictions that are spent will also show up on a police record check in certain circumstances where the check is conducted for specific types of employment, licensing, accreditation for certain occupations and screening such as Working with Children Checks.

22/03/2022

The African Australian Legal Service Ltd (AALS) is a non-profit organisation based in Victoria that was established in 2021. We are completely run by African Australian volunteer lawyers and law students. We provide community legal education and referrals to African Australians, focusing on assisting victim-survivors of family violence and young people at risk of criminalisation. Currently we do not have the capacity to provide legal services, but our long term aim is to build our capacity so that we can develop into an independent legal service for African Australians.

Currently, our partnership with Brimbank Melton Community Legal Centre consists of:

- Regular referrals of clients for legal assistance
- BMCLC offering placements for African Australian law students and graduates referred through the AALS.

In the long term, we hope to strengthen this partnership through:

- Delivery of combined community legal education;
- Dedicated legal services delivered by BMCLC in collaboration with the AALS;
- AALS volunteer lawyers providing legal services under the supervision of BMCLC; and
- Building AALS’ long-term capacity to provide its own legal services and seek its own funding.

Please contact us on: [email protected]

Kind regards,
Admin.