NSW Council for Civil Liberties

This article has multiple issues. Please help or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines for companies and organizations. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (October 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article relies too much on references to primary sources. Please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources. (October 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (June 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

NSW Council for Civil Liberties

Formation	1963
Type	Non-profit
Purpose	Civil liberties advocacy
Headquarters	Sydney
Region served	New South Wales
Website	http://www.nswccl.org.au/

Founded in 1963, the charter of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties is to protect the rights and liberties of Australian citizens (as long as they do not infringe the rights and freedoms of others) and to oppose abusive or excessive exercise of power by the state against its people.^[1]

The Council has a committee elected by volunteers whose primary role is to influence public debate and government policy on a range of human rights issues, aiming to secure amendments to laws and policies which are perceived to unreasonably abridge civil liberties. Additionally, it may provide authoritative support and legal representation to citizens and groups facing civil liberties problems. Typical issues have included advocacy of a bill of rights, the death penalty, prisoners issues, free speech, sniffer dogs, double jeopardy, freedom of information, the right to protest, ATSI (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders) rights, asylum seekers, drug reform and privacy.

Organisation[]

Stephen Blanks, President from October 2013

Cameron Murphy, President from October 1998 - October 2013 Kevin O'Rourke John Marsden

Funding[]

Positions[]

Mandatory sentencing[]

Sniffer dogs[]

Tasers[]

Death penalty[]

Free speech[]

CCTV[]

Government surveillance[]

Terrorism laws[]

LGBT rights[]

Privacy[]

President of NSW Council for Civil Liberties Stephen Blanks raised questions about the use of drones for police investigations of crime scenes. In June 2015 Blanks said,"There are obvious benefits for crime investigation as long as guidelines are in place which clearly say how the information is going to be used and how inappropriate access is going to be prevented."^[2]

Support and opposition[]

This section is empty. You can help by . (July 2015)

Early years[]

Founding in 1963[]

1960s & 1970s[]

• Ken Buckley

1980s & 1990s[]

Modern Era[]

1998 and Cameron Murphy[]

September 11, 2001[]

2000s[]

Paul Lynch MP, Shadow Attorney General acknowledges the contribution of the NSWCCL in Parliament in November 2013 on the occasion of its 50th Anniversary.^[3]

Terrorism and Civil Liberties[]

In a recent speech to the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, High Court Justice Michael Kirby delivered an important reminder to all civil libertarians:

"Let there be no doubt that real terrorists are the enemies of civil liberties...

"Nevertheless...we must also recognise...the need to draw a distinction between 'terrorists' and those who are simply objecting to injustice as they see it. In his day, Mahatma Gandhi was certainly called a terrorist. So was Nelson Mandela...

"[We must also recognise] that, in responding to violent antagonists, democratic communities must do so in a way, as far as possible, consistent with the defence of civil liberties."

References[]

External links[]

• New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties - Official website
• New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties: A Brief History

This organization-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

• v
• t