About Us

Religious Australians are being increasingly targeted for their beliefs.

And with the failure of the Federal Parliament to pass laws to protect Australians from  religious discrimination, HRLA is being contacted by growing numbers of Christians who are being targeted for peaceably practising their faith.

High profile cases of religious freedom are becoming more frequent, but for each one of these we meet countless ordinary Australians paying an unfair price for living out their faith in the public square. Our clients face financial hardship and endure understandable distress when subjected to legal proceedings for simply living in accordance with their beliefs. Others are denied the full enjoyment of opportunities and services because of their religious views. Doctors, psychologists, teachers and other professionals regularly face career ending ultimatums when they speak up for their beliefs and live according to their conscience in Australia.

That is why, since 2019 HRLA has worked to defend Australians from religious discrimination and relieve the genuine hardship they face for living out their faith and convictions in public. We work to ensure that all Australians can peacefully live out their faith without fear of losing their employment, being denied services and opportunities or being unfairly targeted through legal processes. The freedom to live according to your convictions lies at the very heart of all human rights and freedoms. HRLA is committed to defending people’s rights to live out their beliefs and convictions, in keeping with international human rights standards.

What we do

• LITIGATION

  We provide litigation assistance to defend people that are attacked for living out their faith. We ensure our clients have the legal support they need to navigate circumstances that are otherwise highly costly and emotionally distressing. By providing this help, we also set freedom protecting precedents by challenging unfair and unlawful decisions that target people for their beliefs and convictions. Precedents that change law and culture

• LEGAL ADVICE

  We provide advice and/or referral to appropriate alliance lawyers for people in difficult circumstances to help them deal with these circumstances

  We provide our clients with legal advice concerning current and proposed laws, to equip them to comply with their legal obligations while staying faithful to their convictions. We also represent clients presenting legal submissions to government enquiries, to shape the creation of good law that will protect people’s freedom to live in accordance with their beliefs, without fear of reprisal.

• TRAINING

  We provide training for legal practitioners to equip them to preserve and develop good law that they can rely on when representing clients who are unfairly targeted for their beliefs. We also provide training for law students through our holiday internship program and Legal Academy, to give Australia’s next generation of lawyers an understanding of the legal, financial and emotional toll that can afflict ordinary Australians when they stand up for their beliefs. In doing so we equip them to consider the role they can play in defending those who endure these ordeals, when they enter the legal profession and to raise up the next generation of young lawyers who will represent vulnerable Australians facing attack for their beliefs.

• ALLIANCE BUILDING

  We are growing an alliance of lawyers and experts sharing their expertise in support of protecting freedom of belief and conscience. We rely on the generous legal assistance provided by our Alliance Lawyers often at heavily reduced rates, or on a pro bono basis. This is critical in supporting people finding themselves in difficult and stressful circumstances particularly where they cannot afford legal and professional representation.

• RESOURCES

  We produce resources for people of faith and faith-based organisations to help them protect their freedoms and pursue their aims in accordance with their faith. By developing these resources, we aim to assist people in difficult circumstances and limit the risk of retaliation that we are increasingly seeing befall faith-based organisations and individuals who practice their faith publicly.