The Human Rights Day Oration was delivered by James Spigelman, Chairman of the ABC and former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of NSW from 1998 until 2011. His keynote speech tackled the topical issue of ‘Where do we draw the line between hate speech and free speech?’
Speech delivered by Professor Gillian Triggs, former President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, on the topic of the right to equality and education.
Commission – General
Speech delivered to the Anglo-Australasian Lawyers Society
Commission – General
Chancellor, Professor Peter Shergold AC, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, International and Development, Professor John Ingleson, academic staff, senior University management, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, and importantly, graduands.
Commission – General
I would like to begin this evening by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Awabakal People. I pay my respects to their elders past and present.
Commission – General
I would like to begin by joining other speakers in acknowledging the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, the traditional owners of the land upon which we meet. I pay my respects to their elders, both past and present.
Commission – General
It is a great honour to be invited to speak tonight at this special celebration for the Jewish people. Passover is a celebration of the journey of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt to freedom. It is a journey that represents taking responsibility for oneself, one’s community and the world.
Commission – General
I join with those who have spoken before me in acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Dharug people, and pay my respects to their elders, both past and present.
Rights and Freedoms
I would like to begin today by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Wurundjeri peoples, and pay my respect to their elders, past and present.
Commission – General
[1] According to the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) – or living heritage – is the mainspring of our cultural diversity and its maintenance a guarantee for continuing creativity. It is defined as follows: Intangible Cultural Heritage means the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage.
Disability Rights
Some of you ma have had an opportunity to attend one of the concerts by Leonard Cohen while he was on tour here recently. I've spoken with a number of people who attended one of his concerts, and without exception they say that they were some of the best concerts ever.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
I begin by paying my respects to the Mouhenenner people, the traditional owners of the land where we gather today. I pay my respects to your elders, to the ancestors and to those who have come before us.
Disability Rights
I do this in all my public speaking not only because it is proper to do so but because this acknowledgment reminds us that human experience has many levels of diversity, and this of course includes disability.
Commission – General
In the newspapers of recent weeks we seem constantly confronted with similarly miserable and distressing events – a mortar attack on CARE Australia’s office in Baghdad; attacks on a synagogue and the British consulate in Istanbul; more suicide bombings in Israel.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
From the moment Australia was colonised Indigenous peoples have suffered discrimination at the hands of a legal system imported into this land. Not only were our own laws cast aside, but the new laws discriminated against us - and did so because of our race. In 1997, while there has been movement away from former policies of assimilation, removal and protection, the dominant legal system still discriminates against us.
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