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This article considers the legal framework for archival and recordkeeping institutions, archivists and recordkeeping professionals in one Australian state under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) and the relationship with protection of Indigenous culture. It examines the underlying themes of the Victorian Charter and considers the Charter rights to culture, privacy and family as relevant specifically to Indigenous Victorians, and to those institutions keeping records and archives relating to Indigenous Victorians. Finally, it explains the way the human rights protected by the Charter are enforced, and the role of public institutions as duty bearers under the Charter.

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This chapter explores the concepts and practices of democracy that accommodate rights protection and promotion. It discusses that the impact on the power relations between the institutions of government when human rights protection is formally introduced into democratic systems causes tension. It explains that because of the corrupting nature of absolute power, the separation of powers doctrine dictates the dispersal of power between the different arms of government. It adds that the separation of powers is tempered by the need for checks and balances, which requires mixed government. It explains that an exploration of the actual sharing of power under modern human rights instruments is instructive in allaying this anti-democratic critique. It employs international human rights instruments, as well as the British Human Rights Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to ground the theoretical discussion.