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Commission – General

President speeches: Human Rights in Australia

Thank you for inviting me here today to speak about human rights in Australia. I would like to use this opportunity to focus on how human rights are protected in Australia; and how you, as human rights educators, can help students to understand these protections. I will also seek to shed some light on the role of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and some of our responses to some current human rights issues.

Commission – General

H R Law Masterclass: Federal Anti-discrimination Law in an Employment Context: recent developments, likely future directions and the lessons from the past

To some of you the role of The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) in the industrial relations scene in Australia will be well known, others of you may be wondering why a representative of a human rights body would be speaking on this occasion. I propose therefore to briefly summarise HREOC's role in the administration of federal anti-discrimination law, including its complaint handling function, and to give some recent statistics.

Business and Human Rights

Executive discretion in a time of COVID-19

Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have required very quick action by governments. But those responses have also involved significant limitations on people’s rights and freedoms, especially freedom of movement, and implemented through executive power often with limited parliamentary involvement.

Disability Rights

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Dad's time with their daughters is special time, and I spent the afternoon last weekend watching a chickflick with Rachel. For me, the first five minutes consisted of the sound of waves on a beach, seagullls, the slam of a car door, and someone crying. In fact, the whole movie was a fine demonstration that there is much more to communication than speech.

Disability Rights

National Local Roads and Transport Congress

Read a speech that highlights the importance of transport that is inclusive of people with disabilities so they can participate in all aspects of life.

Disability Rights

Human rights for people with intellectual disabilities in Australia: where to from here?

I will not speak in detail about human rights conventions and disability because this topic is addressed by my co-speaker in this session, Karl Lachwitz. I will say though that international human rights law and human rights debate has not yet acknowledged adequately or sufficiently clearly that people with a disability are part of what the "human" in human rights means. Equally, there has not always been enough attention to human rights dimensions in disability discourse.

Rights and Freedoms

Response to Dr Alison Broinowski: Dr Sev Ozdowski, OAM (2005)

I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we stand, the Eora People, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.

Rights and Freedoms

Human Rights in Contemporary AustraliaDr Sev Ozdowski (2001)

Despite its rather grand title, this presentation will be a relatively modest attempt to set out the key challenges for human rights in Australia as I see them at the outset of my term as Human Rights Commissioner.

Commission – General

President Speech: In the national interest: the promotion and protection of human rights

Thank you for the opportunity to speak here today. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Ngunnawal peoples, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.

Commission – General

Promoting Human Rights - Good Governance, the Rule of Law and Democracy

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world

Disability Rights

MENTAL HEALTH FOR ALL: WHAT'S THE VISION?

Over the last four years the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (the Commission) has played a key role in raising community awareness about the human rights Australians with a mental illness. The Commission, through its public inquiry process, brought into national focus how, amongst other things, people affected by mental illness frequently faced discrimination and stigmatisation based on ignorance, fear and inaccurate stereotypes.

Disability Rights

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Acknowledgment of where we stand and where we are is, it seems to me, an essential precondition to good decisions about where we want to go, and how we might get there.

Disability Rights

Innes: Special Education Leaders Conference

I'd also like to acknowledge, as I have done at similar conferences previously, what I have owed personally to people in education in NSW. Education with the support of many great education professionals together with support from family and friends to achieve my goals is why I am in the position I hold now. I compare that to the position of many blind and vision impaired people, facing over 80 per cent rates of unemployment or underemployment.

Disability Rights

Mental health and human rights in regional Australia in 2005

Mr Johnathon Ridnell, ABC Regional Radio Dr Maureen Rogers, Research Fellow, Centre for Sustainable Regional Communities Fellow speakers Ladies and gentlemen

Disability Rights

The right to belong

I have called this paper "the right to belong", and it is with this idea that I wish to begin my address to you this afternoon, before discussing in more detail the current state of the law in relation to disability discrimination.