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Commission – General

Human Rights Education for Life

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.

Category, Speech
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 Integration of Customary Law into the Australian legal system

Good afternoon, I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Noongar people, the traditional owners and custodians of the land where we are gathered today, and pay my respects to their elders. I’d also like to acknowledge my distinguished fellow speakers. My presentation today is focused on customary law. I will refer to Aboriginal customary law, though the points that I will make are equally relevant to Torres Strait Islanders and to their distinct systems of law and governance.

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

Presentation to Productivity Commission DDA review hearing

We would like to begin by emphasising the limited role of discrimination law - that is, we agree to some extent with comments by ACCI that equality cannot be achieved solely by providing stronger antidiscrimination legal provisions.

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Speech by Pru Goward on Leadership Challenges for Australian Women

1. intelligence – by this I mean a grasp of the issues and capacity to understand facts and arguments, to make decisions based on a sound grasp of the consequences. This gives the leader judgement and also enables them to command the confidence of their followers.

Category, Speech
Commission – General

Seventh International Conference for National Human Rights Institutions

Torture and various forms of terrorism have been practiced throughout history, though never on the scale we are now confronted with. The first visual records of police interrogation were discovered in a four thousand year old tomb in ancient Egypt. Since the pharaohs there have been many refinements in methods of inducing physical pain and gathering intelligence, most notably during the Spanish Inquisition, but more recently in the modern totalitarian state.

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

MENTAL HEALTH FOR ALL: WHAT'S THE VISION?

Over the last four years the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (the Commission) has played a key role in raising community awareness about the human rights Australians with a mental illness. The Commission, through its public inquiry process, brought into national focus how, amongst other things, people affected by mental illness frequently faced discrimination and stigmatisation based on ignorance, fear and inaccurate stereotypes.

Category, Speech
Race Discrimination

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Centuries ago a great many of the inhabitants of this beautiful island were wiped out by colonization and its aftermath. The disappearance of so many is a solemn reminder of the injustice done to the first peoples of this land. Their violent absence is a presence that calls for us to reflect on injustices, suffering and reconciliation in the broadest sense. To them I pay my respects.

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Efficiency, Effectiveness and Equity in Public Administration

When I first started to think about your conference title, “Exploring the Three E’s, Effectiveness, Efficiency and Equity”, I had to admit my first thought was why are we still talking about this? Why are the connections between these three outcomes still considered to be a matter of debate, why do we still need to make the case that equity is a legitimate concern?

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Work and family: The challenge for modern Australia

"Work and family: The challenge for modern Australia" Speech by Commissioner Pru Goward, Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Royal Women's Hospital Tracy and Maund Address Royal Women's Hospital, 27 August 2002 Thank you for inviting me here this evening. It is a great privilege to have been...

Category, Speech
Legal

Dignity, Fairness and Good Government: The Role of a Human Rights Act - Lord Bingham

It would clearly test to destruction the tolerance of the ordinary red-blooded Australian to have a Pom getting off the plane from London and telling them how to run their country. So I shall not presume to say how the current human rights debate in this country should be resolved. But perhaps I may contribute some thoughts, prompted by our own experience in the United Kingdom, acknowledging as I do so that the Australian context, while in some ways similar, is in others significantly different.

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Launch of Set the Standard

Launch of Set the Standard , the final report from the Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins Tuesday 30 November 2021 Check against delivery The Commonwealth Parliament sits at the heart of Australia’s representative democracy. As...

Category, Speech

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