Disability Rights
I was around as head of the then Disability Advisory Council of Australia back in the late 80s and early 90s when ACROD and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission worked together on a discussion paper and consultation process to identify and pursue areas of increased need for human rights protection for people with disabilities.
Disability Rights
One day a few years ago I went in to wake my son. I told him that it was good to get up in the morning, to which he grumpily replied, "yes, but dad, it's even better to stay in bed".
Disability Rights
Perhaps it's just because I'm getting older, but I increasingly have the feeling that Australia is becoming a more sentimental and nostalgic nation. We have a Prime Minister whose vision for us is to be relaxed and comfortable. And many of us spent last night - after watching the final stages of the Australian cricket juggernaut's comprehensive winning of the ashes for the eighth time in a row - watch a bunch of old blokes who used to be rock and roll singers showing us that it was a long way to the top. Haven't we got anything more exciting to do than that?
Disability Rights
On behalf of the Commission I'm very pleased to receive the C & W Optus Disability Discrimination Action Plan. It's a great way to celebrate this International Day of People with Disabilities.
Race Discrimination
Centuries ago a great many of the inhabitants of this beautiful island were wiped out by colonization and its aftermath. The disappearance of so many is a solemn reminder of the injustice done to the first peoples of this land. Their violent absence is a presence that calls for us to reflect on injustices, suffering and reconciliation in the broadest sense. To them I pay my respects.
Rights and Freedoms
As lawyers who work every day with ordinary people, you will all have first hand experience of the value that we, in Australia, place on human rights. You will also be acutely aware of the significant gaps in human rights protection in Australia.
Rights and Freedoms
I would like to open today by reading you part of an e-mail that a work colleague of mine received recently from a young Australian woman in her early twenties, who recently completed her Bachelor of Communications degree from UTS in Sydney. As it happens she also holds Polish citizenship and is currently visiting her grandparents in Warsaw.
Rights and Freedoms
Read a statement about the history of the Australian Human Rights Commission, which was presented at the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva in 2003.
Rights and Freedoms
Thank you, Megan McNichol, conference organisers and the Isolated Children's Parents' Association for inviting me to speak at your annual federal conference today.
Commission – General
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
I would like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and pay my respect to their elders past and present.
Commission – General
I'll start with what's stayed the same. The fundamental restructuring of Australia's workplace relations system has left the functions of HREOC untouched. In particular there is no change in its responsibilities to investigate and conciliate complaints of unlawful discrimination.
Commission – General
Torture and various forms of terrorism have been practiced throughout history, though never on the scale we are now confronted with. The first visual records of police interrogation were discovered in a four thousand year old tomb in ancient Egypt. Since the pharaohs there have been many refinements in methods of inducing physical pain and gathering intelligence, most notably during the Spanish Inquisition, but more recently in the modern totalitarian state.
Commission – General
I feel very honoured to have been invited to contribute to this symposium. As a theme for today's discussion, I have chosen the notions of regionalisation and responsibility within Asia and the Pacific. I believe that the ability to accept responsibility for our neighbourhood, and to generate cooperative regional dialogues and actions to fulfill that responsibility will be the key to meeting the challenges and opportunities human rights will face in the new century.
Commission – General
The Hon Catherine Branson was President of the Australian Human Rights Commission from 7 August 2008 - 29 July 2012. Click here to access her biography.
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