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Rights and Freedoms

Speeches on Human Rights Issues

Speeches on Human Rights Issues [ Year: 2011 : 2009 : 2008 : 2007 : 2006 : 2005 : 2004 : 2003 : 2002 : 2001 : 2000 : 1999 : 1998 : 1997 : 1996 ] For more recent speeches: see the speeches of the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission On 12 July 2009, the President took on the additional...

Category, Speech
Legal

Law Seminar 2008: The Importance of Australia’s engagement with International Human Rights Law: coming in from the cold? by Gillian Triggs

While Australia may have come in from the cold, the wind has been taken from my sails. The typical role of an international lawyer over the last few years, whether in Australia or in the UK, Europe and North America has been to berate their respective government ministers with numerous failings and to list the necessary reforms to policy. In Australia’s case these have been to persuade the Commonwealth government to:

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

"The rights of the child and international human rights law"

This morning I am going to talk to you about unaccompanied child migrants in the wider context of current world trends. In so doing, I have taken full account of the lessons to be learned from the experiences of the victims of British child migration schemes.

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

WORLD REFUGEE DAY 2004

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

Category, Speech
Commission – General

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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.

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Women and Racism Forum: A Discussion on the United Nations World Conference Against Racism

Commissioner Bill Jonas has already talked about the upcoming World Conference Against Racism and the importance of using this opportunity to speak out against racism, xenophobia and intolerance. As the Sex Discrimination Commissioner I believe that we should use the World Conference Against Racism to adopt a gender-based approach to the analysis of racism. Australia is one of the most ethnically diverse nations in the world. Women make up over half of Australia's population.

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Children and the Law: Issues in the Asia Pacific Region

Salutation Firstly I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand and by so doing remind ourselves that Australia’s cultural traditions stretch back many thousands of years.

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

“Child Migrants and Human Rights in our Time”: Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM (2005)

I should add, at this point, that my work over the past few years and my inquiry on children in immigration detention (CIDI), in Australia, the report of which "A last resort?" was tabled in the Australian Federal parliament in May of 2004, has made me even more keenly aware of the fragility of child asylum seekers. But more on that later!

Category, Speech
Commission – General

Human Rights - Refugees and Terrorists - What Rights?

It is a great pleasure to be speaking today with Judge Clifford Wallace. I had the pleasure of meeting him on several occasions at Judges' conferences in the Pacific. I was very sorry to miss him when he was in Adelaide in 2003.

Category, Speech

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