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Far too often in Australia, people are denied access to quality healthcare due to racial discrimination, their country of origin and visa status, or due to of a physical or intellectual disability.

The right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and the responsibility of governments to ensure access to medical care for their people, is enshrined in international law. 

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples specifically provides that First Nations peoples have the right to access health services free of discrimination, and the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognises the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

The National Justice Project’s Health Justice Program challenges systemic discrimination in the healthcare system by securing legal and policy reforms to ensure equitable access to quality, dignified and culturally-safe healthcare.

The National Justice Project works to achieve health justice through strategic legal action, education programs, advocacy, projects and partnerships.

The Pacific Justice Project improves access to justice for communities and individuals in Papua New Guinea, Irian Jaya, East Timor and the Pacific Islands by supporting local lawyers and NGO’s in those countries. This includes legal support for asylum seekers in Australian immigration detention on Nauru and Manus Island, who find it difficult to access to lawyers.

The Pacific Justice Project works to protect the homes and rights of Indigenous land holders and settlers. We stand up for women who have been subjected to domestic violence and assault and we work for climate justice in Pacific nations threatened by climate change.

Coronial inquests present an opportunity to examine the system’s and policies that don’t work and call for recommendations to address failings in key areas.

The NJP is acting in relation to a number of deaths of asylum seekers and refugees in detention. The NJP is also acting for the family of young Aboriginal men and women who have died in detention or in the health system.

The National Justice Project has changed Australia’s legal landscape, helping people sent to Nauru and Papua New Guinea by the Australian government in to access essential, life-saving medical care, and setting legal precedents in the process. Medical facilities in those countries often lack essential equipment, or the equipment is broken, and specialist doctors are unavailable. This means it can be impossible to provide essential treatment in those countries.

We believe these people remain Australia’s responsibility. Australia sent them there, pays for their visas, accommodation and living expenses, and they cannot go anywhere else without Australia’s permission. So we have gone to court over a dozen times to force the government to provide sick and dying children and adults the medical care that they need. We have had to threaten legal action for dozens of others, before the government would agree to provide essential healthcare. Our legal action has revealed horrific illnesses emerging in offshore detention, like Resignation Syndrome, which was first raised in Australia in a case that we brought to court.

We have also trained other lawyers in how to bring these cases, and together the sector had a has forced the government to evacuate all children and their families from Nauru.

The crisis for adults continues to deepen, however, and there is so much more to be done. We are continuing to see adults with horrific injuries and illnesses being neglected and mistreated in both Nauru and Papua New Guinea.