Lawyers for a Sydney businessman who successfully cleared his name after an international legal battle which went all the way to the UN Human Rights Committee have called for Australia to be expelled from that same committee after the Federal Government rejected findings that it should apologise and compensate the 51 year-old.<\/p>\n
The high-powered legal team for Charif Kazal, which includes the world-renowned human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson KC, have argued it is \u201cimperative\u201d to pressure the Albanese Government into abiding by the UN committee\u2019s decision that Mr Kazal has been wronged by the NSW corruption watchdog ICAC and deserves an apology and reparations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe HRC should not allow members (Australia) to behave with such blatant hypocrisy: If they cannot accept the Committee\u2019s adjudications they should be excluded from it\u2026\u201d Mr Kazal\u2019s lawyers said in a submission to the Office of The Commissioner for Human Rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe State (Australia) is not prepared to even to discuss (the HRC ruling) with Mr Kazal. It proclaims its support for the international human rights system, but in reality, resists that system when its decisions are inconvenient,\u201d their submission said.<\/p>\n
Mr Kazal\u2019s troubles began in 2011 when ICAC labelled him corrupt after public hearings into his and his family\u2019s dealings with an employee of the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA), Andrew Kelly. The inquiry held hearings into the leasing of four multi-million-dollar properties at Sydney\u2019s The Rocks foreshore area to Mr Kazal. Mr Kelly was at the time a senior executive at SHFA and responsible for leasing and at the same time he had private business dealings with Mr Kazal and failed to disclose a conflict of interest. When Mr Kelly and Mr Kazal went on a trip to the United Arab Emirates together to examine business opportunities and with the possibility of a job for Mr Kelly, Mr Kelly said he had later been reimbursed for the flights and accommodation by Mr Kazal. The ICAC found Mr Kazal engaged in corrupt conduct by trying to influence Mr Kelly with the job offer and by paying his travel expenses. Mr Kelly was also found to be corrupt over the conflict of interest.<\/p>\n
The matter was referred to the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, but the DPP found there was not enough evidence to charge either man.<\/p>\n
But Mr Kazal\u2019s reputation had been trashed and he spent years unsuccessfully attempting in Australian courts to have the corruption finding overturned.<\/p>\n
After exhausting all legal avenues in Australia, Mr Kazal took his fight to the UN Human Rights Committee which found in his favour.<\/p>\n
Mr Kazal told The Nightly \u201cthis injustice consumed the prime years of my life from 36-years old. I will never get this time back and you can only imagine the pain, suffering and loss my family and I have had to endure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sydney law firm, Mitry Lawyers, together with Mr Robertson argued the lack of any exoneration mechanism in the ICAC legislation left Mr Kazal with the reputational stain of being labelled corrupt even though criminal charges were never brought against him. As a result, he had no way of addressing that injustice.<\/p>\n
The Human Rights Committee found ICAC had violated Mr Kazal\u2019s rights and he could never challenge that violation. This had given rise to a perception by the public that he was corrupt.<\/p>\n
The committee had recommended the Australian Government take appropriate steps to remedy the matter with an apology and compensation. It also recommended the Government take steps to prevent any future, similar violations.<\/p>\n
![\"Deputy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/719822351782bd6a818b8bf934ea36b8d2d9795f.jpg\")
Deputy Leader of the Opposition Ted O’Brien has taken Mr Kazal\u2019s case to the floor of Federal Parliament. Credit: Martin Ollman NewsWire\/NCA NewsWire<\/p>\n
The Deputy Leader of the Federal Opposition, Ted O\u2019Brien, made a statement in Parliament on Thursday saying Mr Kazal had been egregiously wronged and denied justice and appropriate steps should be taken to resolve the matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven it is the Australian Government which is signatory to the UN\u2019s human rights treaties and optional protocols, the Commonwealth has obligations in this regard,\u201d Mr O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Kazal has sought to meet with this Government\u2019s Attorneys-General former and current but has not been granted a meeting. I too have made representations without success.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stand in this parliament today to ask if the AG will an apology be made to Mr Kazal in compliance with the UN decision and will she take the time to meet with Mr Kazal?\u201d<\/p>\n
In a separate letter to Federal Attorney General Michelle Rowland in September, Mr Kazal\u2019s legal team called on her department to urgently engage in settlement discussions and a national public apology to the businessman.<\/p>\n
After Mr O\u2019Brien\u2019s speech in Parliament, the Attorney-General\u2019s office responded immediately apologising for the delay but reiterating that the Government \u201crespectfully disagrees with the Committee\u2019s finding and \u2026\u201ddoes not accept that the Australian Government is obliged to compensate Mr Kazal or take steps to prevent future violations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter on behalf of the Attorney-General said it notes that significant reforms have since been made by the ICAC.<\/p>\n
Richard Mitry from Mitry Lawyers has said the Australian Government\u2019s response has been entirely unsatisfactory and the Government must, as a State Party to the UN convention honour its obligation to protect the rights of its citizens and to make good any damage caused by a violation of that right declared by the committee.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026The Government treats him (Mr Kazal) deplorably and as if the HRC decision has not been made. It is important in our submission that the Australian Government face up to its responsibilities and deal with Mr Kazal, otherwise its truculence should be revealed to the world. There will be no other way to bring it into line short of expelling it from the Human Rights Committee,\u201d Mr Mitry submitted to the UN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A high-powered legal team has called for Australia to be expelled from the UN Human Rights Committee following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,99,44,84],"class_list":["post-335888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}