LGBTIQ+
Federal laws prohibit discrimination against women, older people, people with disability and people of different races. However, there are 60-plus pieces of federal legislation which specifically deny financial and work-related benefits to same-sex couples.
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.
Disability Rights
Allow me to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.
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.
Disability Rights
May I commence by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today and by doing so remind ourselves that Australia's cultural traditions stretch back many thousand of years.
May I begin by welcoming you all here today, including Senator Marise Payne who is representing the Commonwealth Attorney General, Professor Gordon Stanley, President of the NSW Board of Studies, Mr Duncan McGuiness from the NSW Parents Council and Mr Roger O'Sullivan from the Council of Catholic School Parents and Mr Kevin Bradburn from the NSW Department of Education. I also welcome the 30-odd students who have been selected to participate in this event and their teachers, and our guest speakers Mr Richard Shearman, Ms Sue Simpson and Ms Beverly Baker.
Rights and Freedoms
Although the first Human Rights Commission was established by federal legislation in 1981, ICESCR was not added to its mandate (unlike the ICCPR). The omission was repeated when the new (current) Commission was established in 1986.
Commission – General
The Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (hereafter the Australian Human Rights Commission) is one of the oldest National Human Rights Institutions in the Asia Pacific region. It was originally established in 1981 as the Human Rights Commission and then restructured in 1986 to become the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. It is a founding member and a strong supporter of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions.
Disability Rights
Allow me to begin by also acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.
Disability Rights
Acknowledgment of where we stand and where we are is, it seems to me, an essential precondition to good decisions about where we want to go, and how we might get there.
Disability Rights
Thank you for this opportunity to address your AGM. These events are important times for community organisations such as yours as they provide an opportunity to celebrate your achievements, refresh your organisation and recognise the hard work of staff, your Board and the membership in general.
Commission – General
This paper addresses one of the Forum themes: ‘Security and Human Rights’. Since 11 September 2001 governments around the world have responded to the threat of terrorism with tough measures to protect the lives and security of their communities – to protect their fundamental human rights. New security measures give government authorities unprecedented powers, which can seriously infringe the basic human rights of those against whom the powers are exercised.
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 accepted the invitation to make this Oration and come here tonight with some trepidation: The person being honoured tonight, Dame Roma Mitchell, was the first federal Human Rights Commissioner and this is the territory that has known the powers of persuasion, conviction and commitment of the best human rights minds in the country, including Dame Roma Mitchell herself. Yet I reminded myself that we are both cultivators in the same vineyard, albeit that I both lagged behind her and sought to learn from her. My work today is made easier by the clear and decisive path cut out by my predecessor.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land we are meeting on tonight. I pay my respects to their elders past and present.
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