Australia's reputation has been damaged by serious human rights issues including its "draconian" asylum seeker policy, overly broad counterterrorism laws, failure to protect children in detention and limits to the rights of people with disabilities, according to a released by Human Rights Watch.
The report also notes Indigenous adults are 13 times more likely to be imprisoned in Australia than non-Indigenous counterparts and the nation still does not recognise the right of same-sex couples to marry.
Human Rights Watch reviewed more than in its 687-page report and Australia's asylum seeker policy drew most criticism for the nation.
"Refugees and asylum seekers languish in limbo after years of detention, and new laws will subject children to easy-to-abuse control orders," Elaine Pearson, Australia director at Human Rights Watch, said.
"If Australia wants to be a global human rights leader, then it should take immediate steps to end these unlawful policies."
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Human Rights Watch recommends Australia take responsibility for the refugees it placed in Papua New Guinea and Nauru and end the system of offshore asylum processing and detention.
The organisation also criticised Australia for a double-standard on human rights.
"Australia raises human rights concerns in other countries, but does so very selectively," the report states.
"It seldom raises human rights concerns publicly about countries it works closely with in interdicting asylum seekers and refugees or with which it has significant trade relations."
Human Rights Watch also pointed to the footage released of "horrific treatment of children held in Northern Territory and Queensland youth detention centres".
The CCTV video showed tear-gassing, hooding, shackling and stripping of children at a youth detention facility in the Northern Territory.
"Despite the report, Territory officials failed to act," the report states.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's introduction last year of counter-terrorism laws was described by Human Rights Watch as incrementally chipping away at fundamental rights.
"Indefinite and arbitrary detention of prisoners who have already served their time undermines the rule of law, a crucial component of countering terrorism," Ms Pearson said.
"While Australia has a responsibility to protect its citizens from harm, this shouldn't come at the cost of undermining basic rights."
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Trump-style populism threatens democracy
In the report that typically focuses on abuses in less-developed countries, Human Rights Watch issued a sharply worded warning that the rise of populist politicians in the United States and Europe threatened modern rights movements and potentially even Western democracy.
The report singled out the rhetoric of Donald Trump -- a man yet to take office as US president -- as "a vivid illustration of (the) politics of intolerance."
If such voices prevail, it said, "the world risks entering a dark era."
The report said Trump's success reflected a dangerous and growing "infatuation with strongman rule" also evident in Russia, China, Venezuela and the Philippines.
HRW executive director Kenneth Roth, in presenting the report, said Trump's rise had emboldened leaders like Hun Sen in Cambodia who see Trump's election "as a greenlight to continue his repression," while one Hungarian politician justified a crackdown by saying, "This is the era of Trump."
Roth was sharply critical of Trump's pick as secretary of state, former ExxonMobil head Rex Tillerson, saying that "this is a guy who made his career by cutting deals with dictators," and who, in a Senate hearing Wednesday, looked "for excuse after excuse" not to take a stand against documented rights abuses.
HRW, which does in-person reporting in each of the 90 countries surveyed, said Syria represented "perhaps the deadliest threat to rights standards" because of the indiscriminate attacks on civilians by Syrian and allied Russian forces. It said government-backed atrocities "could easily breed new extremist groups" even if ISIS is defeated on the battleground.
But the focus of the group's report was the danger of rising populism.
HRW said politicians like Trump were exploiting a "cauldron of discontent" over joblessness, extremist attacks and increasing ethnic and racial diversity to scapegoat refugees, immigrants and minorities. Truth was "a frequent casualty."
Antidote: popular activism
The report asserted that Trump's policy proposals had "a practical emptiness."
Thus, by suggesting a ban on Muslims, the report said, "he demonised the very Muslim communities whose cooperation is important for identifying tomorrow’s plots." His threatened mass deportation of migrants would uproot many who contribute productively to the economy, while doing "nothing to bring back long-lost manufacturing jobs."
The report added: "We forget at our peril the demagogues of yesteryear -- the fascists, communists and their ilk who claimed privileged insight into the majority’s interest but ended up crushing the individual."
While some politicians in Britain, France, Hungary, the Netherlands and Poland were exploiting popular discontent, "too many Western leaders offer only tepid support" for human rights, Roth said.
He did credit Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and President Barack Obama with speaking out for rights at times.
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But other leaders, Roth said, had "buried their heads in the sand" or even exploited populist resentments.
The report faulted President Francois Hollande of France, who it said had "borrowed from the National Front playbook to try to make depriving French-born dual citizens of their nationality a central part of his counterterrorism policy."
And British Prime Minister Theresa May, who came to power after the populist-fueled Brexit vote, had denounced "activist left-wing human rights lawyers" for taking legal action against British troops accused of abuses in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Roth defended the report against the suggestion by one reporter that its criticism of Trump seemed partisan.
"This is not a partisan issue, this is a rights issue," he said, adding that "our best way to protect human rights is to be outspoken about them."
Roth said that in a break with the past, the group was calling not only on leaders of troubled countries but on their publics to take steps.
The best antidote to ascendant populism, the report said, is public activism.
"Populists thrive in a vacuum of opposition. A strong popular reaction, using every means available... is the best defense."
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