Annual Report 2008-2009: Glossary
Annual Report 2008 - 2009
Glossary
[ A | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | K | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | W | Y ]
A
- ADEC
- Action on Disabilities in Ethnic Communities
- AGIMO
- Australian Government Information Management
Office - AIATSIS
- Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Studies - ALP
- Australian Labor Party
- APF
- Asia-Pacific Forum of National Human Rights
Institutions - a member-based organisation that supports the establishment
and strengthening of independent human rights institutions in the Asia-Pacific
region. - APS
- Australian Public Service
- ARA
- Australasian Railways Association
- ASTRA
- Australian Subscription Television Association
- ATSIC
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Commission - AusAID
- Australian Agency for International
Development - Auslan
- Australian Sign Language, the language of the
deaf community in Australia. - Action Plan
- A voluntary mechanism for organisations to
structure their own compliance efforts. - Amicus curiae
- 'Friend of the court' - The
role of an amicus curiae is to provide special assistance to the court in
resolving issues raised by a case, and to draw attention to aspects of the case
that might otherwise have been overlooked.
C
- CDS
- Commonwealth Disability Strategy
- CEDAW
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women - CHS
- Complaint Handling Section
- CLE
- Community Legal Education
- COAG
- Council of Australian Governments
- CSIRO
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organisation - CSW
- United Nations Commission on the Status of
Women - Commission, the
- The Australian Human Rights Commission
- Consultancy contract
- A contract that typically defines the nature,
purpose and duration of the task to be performed, but not (in any detail)
the manner in which the task is to be performed by a consultant. The consultant
is usually paid on completion of milestones or in a lump sum. - Consultancy service
- A particular type of service delivered under a
contract for services, distinguished from other contracts by the nature of the
work performed. Consultancy services involve the application of expert
professional skills to: investigate or diagnose a defined issue or problem,
carry out defined research, reviews or evaluations; or provide independent
advice, information or creative solutions to assist the agency in management
decision making. - Consultant
- An entity (whether an individual, a
partnership or a corporation) engaged to provide professional independent and
expert advice or services. Consultants are not employees of the department and
are not paid wages or other employee entitlements. - Corporate Social
- The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility
is - Responsibility
- generally understood to mean that corporations
have a degree of responsibility not only for the economic consequences of their
activities, but also for the social and environmental implications. This is
sometimes referred to as a ‘triple bottom line’ approach that
considers the economic, social and environmental aspects of corporate
activity.
D
- DDPA
- Durban Declaration and Programme of Action
- DFAT
- Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- DIAC
- Department of Immigration and Citizenship
- DIMIA
- Department of Immigration and Multicultural
and Indigenous Affairs - DPO
- Disabled people’s organisations
- Disability Convention
- United Nations Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities
E
- EEO
- Equal Employment Opportunity
- EL
- Executive Level
- Expert Mechanism
- Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples. Composed of five experts (from Congo, Malaysia, Norway, Costa Rica and
the Philippines), the Expert Mechanism provides thematic expertise on the rights
of indigenous peoples to the Human Rights Council, the main human rights body of
the United Nations.
F
- FaHCSIA
- Department of Families, Housing, Community
Services and Indigenous Affairs
G
- GST
- Goods and Services Tax
- General Assembly
- The United Nations General Assembly - one
of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all
member nations have equal representation. Its powers are to oversee the budget
of the United Nations, appoint the non-permanent members to the Security
Council, receive reports from other parts of the United Nations and make
recommendations in the form of General Assembly Resolutions.
H
- HREOCA
- Human Rights and Equal Opportunity
Commission Act 1986 - HRTC
- Human Rights Technical Cooperation
Program
I
- IDLO
- International Development Labour Organization
- dedicated to bringing decent work and livelihoods, job-related security
and better living standards to the people of both poor and rich countries. - IPO
- Indigenous Peoples Organisations Network of
Australia - an association of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
organisations that promotes and protects the human rights of the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people in Australia.
K
- KARG
- Key Agencies Reference Group on Age
Discrimination
N
- NGO
- Non Government Organisation
- NHRI
- National Human Rights Institution
- NPM
- National Preventative Mechanism
- National Action Plan
- National Action Plan to Build on Social Cohesion, Harmony and Security
- Native title
- A pre-existing property interest, held communally or individually by Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders, which is capable of being recognised by Australia's common law. Native title can exist over land and waters where Aboriginal people or Torres Strait Islanders maintain traditional laws and customs that give them a connection to the specified area. Native title rights are not granted by governments or courts. Native title is not an underlying title, but rather a bundle of rights that can be extinguished by inconsistent acts of government.
O
- OPCAT
- Optional Protocol to the Convention against
Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment - an international agreement which establishes a two-tiered system of
inspections of places of detention, with the aim of preventing torture and
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. - Operations
- Functions, services and processes performed in
pursuing the objectives or discharging the functions of an agency. - Outcomes
- The results, impacts or consequence of actions
by an agency on the Australian community. - Outputs
- The goods or services produced by agencies on
behalf of government for external organisations or individuals. Outputs include
goods and services produced for other areas of government external to an
agency.
P
- Pacific Disability
- The peak non-government organisation in the
Pacific which represents - Forum
- Pacific Islanders with disabilities, their
rights and entitlements. Its purpose is to promote and facilitate Pacific
regional cooperation on disability-related concerns for the benefit of people
with disabilities. - Permanent Forum
- United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous
Issues - An advisory body to the United Nations Economic and Social
Council with a mandate to discuss indigenous issues related to economic and
social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human
rights.
R
- RAP
- Reconciliation Action Plan - A
self-generated plan that helps organisations build positive relationships
between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, through engagement within their
sphere of influence, in the national effort to close the gap in life expectancy
between Indigenous and other Australians. - REX
- Regional Express Airways
- RMIT
- Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
University - RSS
- Really Simple Syndication - a means of
distributing changing web content to different users and other websites e.g.,
distributing news headlines.
S
- SES
- Senior Executive Service
- SMS
- Short message service - text messaging
on a mobile telephone. - Sex files
- Sex files: the legal recognition of sex in
documents and government records (the Sex and gender diversity project). - Service charter
- Public statements about the service that a
department or agency will provide.
T
- TTY
- Text Telephone - a special device that
lets people who are deaf, hearing impaired, or speech-impaired use the telephone
to communicate, by allowing them to type messages back and forth to one another,
instead of talking and listening.
U
- UN
- The United Nations
- UNESCO
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization - UNPFII
- United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous
Issues - Unique visits
- The presence in a website of a user with a
specific IP address who has not visited the site recently (typically, anytime
within the past 30 minutes). The number of these user sessions (unique visits)
per day is one measure of how much traffic a website has. A user who visits a
site at noon and then again at 3:30 pm would count as two user visits. - Universal Declaration
- Adopted unanimously by the members of the
United of Human Rights - Nations on 10 December 1948, the Universal
Declaration is the foundation on which much international law has been based. It
sets out the fundamental rights of all people, including the right to life;
freedom from slavery, torture and arbitrary arrest; freedom of thought, opinion
and religion; the right to a fair trial and equality before the law; the right
to work and education; and the right to participate in the social, political and
cultural life of one’s country. - UTS
- University of Technology Sydney
W
- W3C
- World Wide Web Consortium
- WAI
- Web Accessibility Initiative
- WCAG
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
- Workplace diversity
- The central principle of workplace diversity is
the creation of workplaces free from discrimination, harassment and
bullying.
Y
- Yogyakarta Principles
- Adopted in March 2007, these Principles provide
guidance on the application of international human rights law in relation to
sexual orientation and gender identity. The Principles affirm binding
international legal standards with which all states must comply.