Refugee Advocacy Service of South Australia

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Refugee Advocacy Service of South Australia Inc. (RASSA) is a non-profit Community Legal Centre in South Australia. It was set up in 2002 to represent asylum-seekers in the Federal Court of Australia. From about 2007, it was de-funded and ceased to exist. It has, however, now began functioning again in order to assist asylum-seekers in the community in South Australia whose applications are still being processed.

Australia has approximately 200 Community Legal Centres (CLCs). They are independent not for profit organisations aiming to advance legal–and, by extension, social and political–equality by making the law accessible to the poor and otherwise marginalised members of Australian society. One distinctive feature of CLCs that also underpins their aspiration for equal access to justice is that they provide legal advice and traditional casework for free, primarily funded by federal, state and local government. Apart from these direct client orientated services CLC workers and volunteers are also active in other, diverse, areas through which they attempt to realise systemic change. For example, they lobby for law reform, undertake test case litigation, critique police powers and behaviours, monitor prisons systems and conditions, and develop community education programs. These programs may include anything from published books and pamphlets to radio programs and conference presentations.

South Australia State of Australia

South Australia is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of 983,482 square kilometres (379,725 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, and fifth largest by population. It has a total of 1.7 million people, and its population is the second most highly centralised in Australia, after Western Australia, with more than 77 percent of South Australians living in the capital, Adelaide, or its environs. Other population centres in the state are relatively small; Mount Gambier, the second largest centre, has a population of 28,684.

Federal Court of Australia Australian superior court

The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law, along with some summary criminal matters. Cases are heard at first instance by single Judges. The Court includes an appeal division referred to as the Full Court comprising three Judges, the only avenue of appeal from which lies to the High Court of Australia. In the Australian court hierarchy, the Federal Court occupies a position equivalent to the Supreme Courts of each of the states and territories. In relation to the other Courts in the federal stream, it is equal to the Family Court of Australia, and superior to the Federal Circuit Court. It was established in 1976 by the Federal Court of Australia Act.

Contents

History

In April 2002, a group of lawyers from the Woomera Lawyers' Group set up and established the Refugee Advocacy Service of South Australia Inc.. The purpose of the center was to organise and centralise files for the vast number of asylum seekers who had sought, or were seeking, a judicial review of their original decisions in the Federal Court of Australia.

Judicial review is a process under which executive or legislative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws acts and governmental actions that are incompatible with a higher authority: an executive decision may be invalidated for being unlawful or a statute may be invalidated for violating the terms of a constitution. Judicial review is one of the checks and balances in the separation of powers: the power of the judiciary to supervise the legislative and executive branches when the latter exceed their authority. The doctrine varies between jurisdictions, so the procedure and scope of judicial review may differ between and within countries.

RASSA was originally conceived as a clearing house. However, it was not always able to locate appropriate solicitors. It often went on file as the instructing solicitor. Almost all of the work performed by the service or through the service was on a pro bono basis, with the exception of one employed legal officer or lawyer who worked part-time and one employed administrative officer. A group of lawyers, often comprising board members and other senior lawyers, reviewed each file to determine whether there was a prospect of a case being run. The legal officer and the board, who almost without exception were legally trained, would then seek out pro bono counsel to run the case.

Pro bono publico is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. Unlike traditional volunteerism, it is service that uses the specific skills of professionals to provide services to those who are unable to afford them.

Board of directors board composed of directors

A board of directors is a group of people who jointly supervise the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit business, nonprofit organization, or a government agency. Such a board's powers, duties, and responsibilities are determined by government regulations and the organization's own constitution and bylaws. These authorities may specify the number of members of the board, how they are to be chosen, and how often they are to meet.

A counsel or a counsellor at law is a person who gives advice and deals with various issues, particularly in legal matters. It is a title often used interchangeably with the title of lawyer.

RASSA's purpose was to provide legal representation for asylum seekers in the Federal Court of Australia and to assist asylum seekers in getting their cases remitted back to the Refugee Review Tribunal. RASSA's efforts were frustrated by the Commonwealth Parliament's inclusion of a privative clause into the Migration Act. This clause narrowly restricted the grounds of judicial review.

In civil proceedings and criminal prosecutions under the common law, a defendant may raise a defense in an attempt to avoid criminal or civil liability. Besides contesting the accuracy of any allegation made against them in a criminal or civil proceeding, a defendant may also make allegations against the prosecutor or plaintiff or raise a defense, arguing that, even if the allegations against the defendant are true, the defendant is nevertheless not liable.

The Refugee Review Tribunal was an Australian administrative law tribunal established in 1993. Along with the Migration Review Tribunal, the Refugee Review Tribunal was amalgamated to a division of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on 1 July 2015.

Parliament of Australia legislative branch of the Commonwealth of Australia

The Parliament of Australia is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the Crown, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The combination of two elected chambers, in which the members of the Senate represent the states and territories while the members of the House represent electoral divisions according to population, is modelled on the United States Congress. Through both chambers, however, there is a fused executive, drawn from the Westminster system.

RASSA survived almost entirely on donations sent in from supportive members of the community or from fund raising events. RASSA was also awarded several grants. The centre also accumulated a number of cost orders which were donated by counsel when granted orders whilst acting for asylum seekers on behalf of the service.

Donation Gift given by physical or legal persons, typically for charitable purposes and/or to benefit a cause

A donation is a gift for charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donation may satisfy medical needs such as blood or organs for transplant.

Fundraising process of gathering voluntary contributions of money or other resources

Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gather money for non-profit organizations, it is sometimes used to refer to the identification and solicitation of investors or other sources of capital for for-profit enterprises.

Grants are non-repayable funds or products disbursed or given by one party, often a government department, corporation, foundation or trust, to a recipient, often a nonprofit entity, educational institution, business or an individual. In order to receive a grant, some form of "Grant Writing" often referred to as either a proposal or an application is required.

The service was recognised as filling a major gap in legal services to a marginalised minority in a time of acute sensitivity in the Australian community to the issue of refugees.

Social exclusion or marginalization , or social marginalisation, is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term used widely in Europe and was first used in France. It is used across disciplines including education, sociology, psychology, politics and economics.

In sociology, a minority group refers to a category of people who experience relative disadvantage as compared to members of a dominant social group. Minority group membership is typically based on differences in observable characteristics or practices, such as: sex, ethnicity, race, religion, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Utilizing the framework of intersectionality, it is important to recognize that an individual may simultaneously hold membership in multiple minority groups. Likewise, individuals may also be part of a minority group in regard to some characteristics, but part of a dominant group in regard to others.

Founding board members

A number of South Australian lawyers contributed to assisting refugees (see for example Woomera Lawyers' Group). Some of these lawyers founded RASSA. The original founding board members, those who held office on the executive at various points throughout the first year, were:

Other major contributors

The service was supported by a wide range of barristers and other people involved in the law. Other people who played a prominent part in the operations of RASSA included:

Activities

The service provided free representation in the Federal Court of Australia to any detainee who had an arguable case. It represented hundreds of asylum seekers through the pro bono support of members of the South Australian profession. RASSA held fund raising and profile raising events throughout Australia.

It acted on a pro bono basis for refugees in a number of cases, including the following:

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

UN communications

RASSA also represented a number of asylum seekers who petitioned the United Nations Human Rights Committee concerning breaches of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by Australia. In this they had at least two successes, in which Australia was found to have breached the ICCPR by arbitrarily detaining nine men:

Recognition

RASSA has been discussed in academic papers [4] and covered in domestic and international media. [5] [6]

The service was awarded a special notice from Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in 2003.

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References

  1. ↑ Law Council of Australia (5 November 2004). "2004 Young Lawyer Award Winners". Archived from the original on 26 August 2006.
  2. ↑ Al-Kateb v Godwin [2004] HCA 37 , (2004) 219 CLR 562, High Court (Australia).
  3. ↑ Minister for Immigration & Multicultural & Indigenous Affairs v Hamdan [2005] FCAFC 113 , Federal Court (Full Court) (Australia).
  4. ↑ Crowley-Cyr, L. "Mental Illness and Indefinite Detention at the Minister's Pleasure". (2005) 9(1) University of Western Sydney Law Review 53.
  5. ↑ Barkham, Patrick (May 25, 2002). "No waltzing in Woomera". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007.
  6. ↑ Bowden, Charles (March–April 2003). "Outback Nightmares & Refugee Dreams". Mother Jones . Retrieved 28 July 2013.
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