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Business and Human Rights

Executive discretion in a time of COVID-19

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.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

The National Apology to the Stolen Generations one year on (2009)

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the Wurundjeri country, the land where we are meeting today, and thank Joy Murphy Wandin for her warm welcome to country. I pay my respects to your elders and to those who have come before us. I would also like to thank the Wunsyaluv dancers for the dances they have performed for us today.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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I begin by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land where we meet today, and pay my respects to their elders. I would also like to thank the LIME conference organisers -- and Gregory Phillips and Lisa Jackson-Pulver in particular -- for inviting me to speak tonight and for organising this event and for ensuring that Indigenous health – so often overlooked in the ongoing debates about health and health reform in Australia – receives the attention it deserves in this context.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Native Title and Service Delivery

My presentation today will focus on the content of my Native Title Report 2005. I will outline the debates about economic development on Indigenous land - the possibilities and the challenges. At the conclusion of this presentation I will provide some challenge statements about the responsibilities of service deliverers on Indigenous land.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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Opening address to the 'Indigenous peoples and racism' Conference A Regional Meeting for the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance by Dr William Jonas AM , Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner , Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 20 February 2001

Category, Speech
Commission – General

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Amongst all this expertise, it is fair to ask why is the President of the national human rights commission – and particularly a President who has only fairly recently commenced in this role - here presenting the keynote speech to such a conference?

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

Human rights for people with intellectual disabilities in Australia: where to from here?

I will not speak in detail about human rights conventions and disability because this topic is addressed by my co-speaker in this session, Karl Lachwitz. I will say though that international human rights law and human rights debate has not yet acknowledged adequately or sufficiently clearly that people with a disability are part of what the "human" in human rights means. Equally, there has not always been enough attention to human rights dimensions in disability discourse.

Category, Speech
Commission – General

Australian Red Cross National Conference

I wish to start today by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we are meeting. On behalf of the Australian Human Rights Commission, I pay my respects to their elders past and present.

Category, Speech

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