The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
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
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
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.
There is substantial attention in the international community being directed at present to the human rights of people with disabilities. An international convention on human rights and disability is being actively considered through the United Nations system. I would have been attending a regional meeting in Beijing in April this year as part of this process but this was cancelled because of the SARS outbreak.
Allow me to commence by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet, the Wallumattagal clan of the Eora peoples. Let me also acknowledge my fellow speakers, as well as other distinguished guests and friends.
I have called this paper "the right to belong", and it is with this idea that I wish to begin my address to you this afternoon, before discussing in more detail the current state of the law in relation to disability discrimination.
Thank you Professor Lansbury, and thank you to Marian and the Women and Work Research Group for organising today’s forum. Thank you also to our panellists – Dr Lyn Craig, Petra Stirling, and John Murray.
I'm very pleased to be speaking to you today. I'm especially encouraged that so many young people have put aside a weekend to think about, and talk about, human rights.
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.
Professors Harry Minas and Byron Good - Conference Convenors and Co-directors, distinguished guests from both Australia and overseas, ladies and gentlemen, all.
I would like to thank the Victorian Healthcare Association for inviting me to speak today. I hope that the Congress has been stimulating and has provided all of you with both an understanding of the problems facing healthcare in Australia, and some sense of optimism for what can be achieved to improve the health outcomes for all Australians.
I would like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal peoples of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
A little over a month ago, I started as the new President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, ending my time as a judge of the Federal Court of Australia.
International Human Rights Day falls on 10th December each year. It marks the occasion on 10th December 1948 when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
I would like to begin by thanking the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) for inviting me to address you today, and thank Margaret Boylan (Regional Director, APS Commission, SA/NT) for her warm welcome.
Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have required very quick action by governments. But those responses have also involved significant limitations on people’s rights and freedoms, especially freedom of movement, and implemented through executive power often with limited parliamentary involvement.
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