How Australia violates the UN Declaration of Human Rights by keeping...

Australia’s bans on traveling overseas and moving between states could constitute potential violations of a United Nations declaration on human rights.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Thursday that the ban on Australians traveling abroad is unlikely to be lifted until next year.

“For the foreseeable future, there will continue to be restrictions on Australians leaving the country,” he told Cairns radio station 4CA.

The overseas ban on Australians was introduced in March as non-nationals and non-residents were also prevented from entering the country to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

A human biosecurity emergency has also been declared, giving Federal Health Secretary Greg Hunt the authority to issue orders to combat the COVID-19 outbreak.

The national and state border closings are also potential violations of the United Nations’ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Australia was one of eight nations that helped develop these principles in 1948.

According to Article 13 “everyone has the right to move and reside within the borders of any state.”

This clause also states: “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”

Human rights attorney Julian Burnside, QC, said a perpetual travel ban that was not aimed at fighting a pandemic was in violation of the UN Charter of Human Rights.

“In my opinion, yes,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

“A justification would have to be that individual rights are being sacrificed to protect the rights of the entire community.”

Mr Burnside, a refugee attorney and member of the Greens, said Australia routinely ignored the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

“The government violates the UN Charter so often that I imagine they aren’t worried about it,” he said.

The lawyer, who is also President of Liberty Victoria, is particularly upset in Australia for ignoring Article 14, which gives everyone the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution in other countries.

“I find it outrageous,” said Mr. Burnside.

According to Article 13 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “everyone has the right to move and reside within the borders of any state”. This clause also states: “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country

The travel ban also prevents Australians from going to the US who have a green card to live and work there as permanent residents.

As part of the Visa lottery, foreigners with an American green card must travel to the United States within 12 months.

The Australian travel ban creates legal confusion for Australians planning to move to the US.

The Australian Home Office is preventing Australians from moving to the US, even if they have the right to move there for longer periods.

“If this were refused, the personal cost of losing an American green card would be astronomical,” an Australian in the position told Daily Mail Australia.

“Years of hard work and money went into obtaining this right of permanent residence in the United States.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Thursday that the ban on Australians traveling abroad is unlikely to be lifted until next year

Exceptions to the travel ban are hard to come by as former Prime Minister Tony Abbott was granted permission to fly to the UK in August to serve as a government trade advisor.

Liberal MP Dave Sharma, who represents the wealthy electorate of Wentworth in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, has criticized the government’s overseas travel ban.

The former ambassador to Israel told nine newspapers in August that it was “a rather extraordinary restriction on people’s freedom”.

“This is an extreme measure for extreme times, but we cannot think of staying in place for the long term,” he said.

“There is no other country I know of that has an exit permit system like we have in Australia.”

Most of the other liberal democracies like Canada, Britain, and New Zealand discourage international travel but do not prevent citizens from going overseas.

The overseas ban on Australians was introduced in March as non-nationals and non-residents were also prevented from entering the country to slow the spread of the coronavirus. An abandoned Sydney International Airport is pictured

Still, Australia is working on a travel bubble with New Zealand.

From Friday, kiwis will be allowed to travel to New South Wales or the Northern Territory without quarantine.

Mr Morrison is working on travel bubbles to allow Aussies to vacation in certain low risk countries without quarantining themselves on their return.

He said he was in the “early stages” of talks with Japan and South Korea but declined to say when the agreements could be reached.

“I can’t give you an honest answer because I don’t want to raise expectations,” he said.