Disability Rights
I also acknowledge ACROD Chief Executive Ken Baker; my fellow editorial advisory board members; Felicity Purdy, who I am delighted to see being recognised this evening with life membership; other distinguished guests, and all of you my fellow Australians.
Disability Rights
As you know, the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act, and equivalent laws in all States, make it unlawful to discriminate on the ground of a person's disability. One of the areas covered by the Act is access to premises. The only exception to this is where a building is already constructed not providing access, and alteration to provide access would cause unjustifiable hardship.
Race Discrimination
Can I begin by thanking and acknowledging the Ngunnawal Peoples, the traditional owners of the land on which we are meeting and thank Aunty Agnes for her warm welcome.
Rights and Freedoms
For those of you unfamiliar with Australia’s Human Rights Commission, it’s an independent government body that protects and promotes human rights. My role as Human Rights Commissioner is to check that human rights in Australia are being respected including the human rights of children and young people.
Rights and Freedoms
In so doing however I am confronted with the classic dilemma of many, namely what fresh insight can I bring to bear on this subject that has not already been canvassed.
Rights and Freedoms
Speech by Dr Sev Ozdowski at the United Nations Association of Australia - Tasmanian Branch - Human Rights Seminar: Human Rights from the Perspective of Individual, Collective and Corporate Responsibilities, Saturday 17 November 2001
Commission – General
I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Ngunnawal peoples, and pay my respect to their elders past and present.
Commission – General
Let me preface my remarks today with the assertion that, generally speaking, Australia has a strong and proud record on human rights. The Australian Government is formally committed to supporting the universal observance of human rights both at home and abroad saying that this policy helps to achieve a more stable and just international order, which benefits the security and prosperity of everyone. In this statement, the Government links peace to the observance of human rights, a topic to which I shall return.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
I would like to thank Professor Larissa Behrendt, Professor Martin Nakata, the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, and the Reconciliation Working Party at the UTS, for hosting this event. And I acknowledge my distinguished fellow speakers.
Disability Rights
To set the scene for my presentation this afternoon, I want to share two autobiographical fragments with you, both of them having to do with my experience at university.
Disability Rights
I said when I first wrote inviting you to this forum that I had been receiving representations seeking action on a range of health issues for people with disabilities, including:
Disability Rights
Some of us here were sitting in a stuffy conference room in the UN headquarters in New York when the Working Group completed its drafting of the convention. It was only stuffy because - in true UN style - we had exceeded our time limit for the session, the interpreters had gone home, and the air-conditioning had been turned off. But for most of us, these disadvantages paled in the excitement of what we had achieved. And that excitement was amplified as we watched the General Assembly confirm our work.
Disability Rights
On March 30 this year Australia lined up with 80 other countries at the UN in New York to sign the Convention on the Rights or Persons with Disabilities
Disability Rights
Thanks for the opportunity to speak to this conference today. You are embarking on this topic, in my view, at just the right time. Unemployment is the lowest it has been for over a decade. Our economy is strong and needing more employees, and our population is ageing, reducing the relative size of the workforce. In coming years, there will be fewer of us to support more of us, so as many people as possible need to be working and paying taxes rather than receiving welfare benefits. What better time to introduce employees with disabilities in larger numbers.
Disability Rights
You might have noticed that somehow governments never seem to want the same long term commitment from Human Rights Commissioners. In fact, they often seem quite happy to see us arrive at the end of a term of office ... .
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