Body Searches

Thompson v Minogue,

In 2020, Dr Craig Minogue successfully challenged a prison order that he submit to a urine test and routine strip search before that test. In the Supreme Court, Minogue successfully argued this direction was in breach of his rights to privacy and dignity in detention. The state of Victoria appealed. The Victorian Court of Appeal upheld the Supreme Court’s ruling that routine strip searches prior to urine testing breached Minogue’s human rights and the government did not properly consider human rights when making strip-searching policies. The Court found these routine strip searches were “extremely invasive and demeaning” procedures against the privacy and dignity rights.

Mistry v Interim Medical and Dental Council of South Africa ‍

The Constitutional Court held that the right to privacy provides safeguards to regulate the search and seizure of the private sector by state officials, which clearly distinguishes a constitutional democracy from a police state. The right to privacy is a core fundamental human right universally and has received renewed attention mainly due the concerns about the social media and the protection of data as well as the right to freedom of speech.

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