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I am honoured to present this distinguished lecture, which has been established as a tribute to the contribution of Sir Wallace Kyle to Western Australian society.
I am honoured to present this distinguished lecture, which has been established as a tribute to the contribution of Sir Wallace Kyle to Western Australian society.
I wrote the title for this presentation almost a year ago when I was first asked to give it. I came back to it two weeks ago to write the actual paper and thought "what does this mean?"
I am very pleased to be able to contribute to this Forum and would like to congratulate the co-convenors, Rhonda and Fiona, and their organisations for this initiative, which is just one part of the Disability Advisory Council's Disability Action Plan Project running throughout 2006.
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.
Thank you for the chance to speak with you at your AGM today. AGMs are important formal processes in the corporate life of an organisation. But they also provide an opportunity to reflect on what the organisation has achieved over the last twelve months, and to look into the future at the challenges ahead. You - as members, directors, staff and supporters of Epilepsy Action - know the organisation much better than I do. So I'm not going to attempt a review of your past, or polish up my crystal ball for some future gazing.
Some of us are women and some are men; some of us brought new names and accents in recent decades and some of us have Australian ancestry reaching back tens of thousands of years; and some of us have one or more disabilities.
I am not here to present South Australia's government as having achieved the last word in access and inclusion for people with disabilities, any more than this report itself seeks to claim that the task is finished.
Most of you here today would know that it is not trite to say that local government is the closest level of government to our communities, and as such plays a key role in building and reinforcing the fabric of those communities.
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.
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.
Paper presented at the Homelessness and Human Rights Seminar Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission 12.30 – 2pm, Monday 7 August 2008 133 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, NSW
I would like to welcome everybody to the launch of Rights of Passage: A Dialogue with Young Australians about Human Rights. I thank you all for coming.
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.
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.
Forty eight years ago this Tuesday, on December 10 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration was a response to the trauma that many of the worlds nations had experienced in World War II. The trauma was especially strong among the nations of Europe, particularly because of the Holocaust, but it was also evident in East Asia, South Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific.
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