Disability Rights
I am here today representing, firstly, the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), and, second, I'm here to represent at least 20% of the population, and 20% of your customers and users if you are a web developer or web content manager: of course, I'm referring to people who have a disability.
Disability Rights
I always like to begin my presentations with a humorous anecdote or joke of some kind. For one thing, it lets me know that someone is actually listening, and it also lulls the audience into a false sense of security for the dry parts to follow. So as part of my preparation for this morning's discussion of disability discrimination law in Australia, I decided to find an answer to the important question, "how many audiologists does it take to change a lightbulb". Fortunately there is a website devoted to lightbulb jokes, and so I duly consulted it.
Disability Rights
It is a pleasure to be able to be here to present a certificate of appreciation which, in a small way, commemorates Barossa Council's commitment to equality and access for people with disabilities through its development of a Disability Action Plan under the Disability Discrimination Act.
Disability Rights
I am honoured and delighted to be here to deliver the Kenneth Jenkins Oration. My participation continues the involvement of members of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission with this event.
Race Discrimination
I also acknowledge colleagues from government, and from non-government organisations, including from a wide range of churches and faith-based organisations. And particularly can I acknowledge colleagues from the Australian Multicultural Foundation, Hass Dellal and Athalia Zwartz, and Professors Gary Bouma and Des Cahill, as the authors of the report we are receiving and launching today.
Legal
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
Rights and Freedoms
Homelessness has, I'm sure, been on your agendas for many years. More recently, both Parity and the Rudd federal government (if I can put you both in the same league) has given it a much increased focus. Today, I want to identify the many human rights issues raised in the context of homelessness, and suggest how a human rights framework would help address what is an ever-increasing problem in our society.
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
Mrs Irene Hancock, AWCH National President, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, all. I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people, the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand.
Rights and Freedoms
International law deals with many matters of importance to everyday life: access to the water of rivers for navigation, irrigation and drinking; transport by sea and air; environmental protection; the arrest and extradition of those accused or convicted of crimes. International law provides protection in international life and locally.
Commission – General
Speech by Catherine Branson, former president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, delivered as part of the Centre for Research in Education Annual Oration in 2011.
Commission – General
I would like to acknowledge the Kaurna peoples, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
Commission – General
Thank you for inviting me here today, to speak about a topic which in my view receives too little attention yet is one of critical importance not only to the way we live but to the kind of society we live in – the topic of human rights education.
Commission – General
The first is that HREOC has been suggesting for a considerable time that there needs to be renewed public debate on whether Australia should have a charter of human rights of some sort. It seems that the launch of the New Matilda campaign will give momentum to such a debate. A lot has changed, both nationally and internationally since the unsuccessful attempts of the 1970s and the 1980s to interest Australians in a bill of rights. As is so often said, Australia has now become the only major Western democracy that does not have a bill of rights.
Commission – General
I also want to make mention of the fact that we are 130kn south west of an area of great significance to the Aboriginal communities of western NSW, which is now called Mutawintji National Park - the first park to be handed back to its Traditional Owners under the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Act in 1998. [1] The caves and overhangs in the park have been transformed into expansive galleries of Aboriginal rock art, and it comes as no surprise that they have formed the backdrop for ceremonies for at least 8,000 years.
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