Search results

Introduction Distinctive features of the DDA Definition of disability Standards Limits of standards Action plans Focus of legislation on long term and large scale change Exemptions Complaint processes Courts and the role of anti-discrimination agencies

In my presentation today I want to focus on the Commission's work with Local Government and the effect the Disability Discrimination Act has had on how they go about their business.

I want to talk today about the relationship between the lofty principles of international law on human rights and the practical realities for people with a disability in Australia.

I have to admit that two months ago when I took the title " The Disability Discrimination Act and the continuing battle for equal rights for people with a disability" for my paper today I was not attaching great importance to the precise words of that title.

Graeme Innes AM Deputy Disability Discrimination Commissioner Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Physical Disability Council of Australia 20 November 2000

Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM Human Rights Commissioner and Disability Discrimination Commissioner Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission, Sydney, Australia

RITA KUSEVSKIS-HAYES: Good morning, everybody. If I can ask everyone to take their seats.  Good morning, everybody. My name is Rita Kusevskis-Hayes, and I would like to welcome you on behalf of the 2011 Careers Forum Organising Committee to the University of New South Wales. 

I would like to begin by saying how delighted I am to be here speaking this evening about the work of the Australian Human Rights Commission. I hope also to learn more about the protection of human rights in Japan and about your proposal for a national human rights institution in Japan. This is my first time to Japan and I am thrilled to be here. I am grateful for all the work that has gone into the preparation for this session and for my visit. And I thank those who have looked after me so well since I arrived in your country.

For thousands of years, Aboriginal groups, who might spend much of their time living far apart in the expanses of this land, pursuing separately the business of survival, would come together at times to meet, to trade, sometimes to resolve differences, but also to exchange knowledge for mutual benefit.

I hope that you are not expecting from me a speech full of stirring rhetoric, to inspire you before you settle into detailed and practical discussions throughout the rest of this conference.