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Rights and Freedoms
Access and equity: human rights in practice
Speech to SydWest Multicultural Services AGM Edward Santow – speaking notes – CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Acknowledgements: the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land, the Darug people Dr Chandrika Subramaniyan (Chair, SydWest Multicultural Services) Elfa Moraitakis (CEO, SydWest) Introduction...
Rights and Freedoms
Human rights in action: the role of social workers in detention
Speech to Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) Queensland State Social Work Conference University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus – Lecture Theatre Room 234, Parnell Building Check against delivery Acknowledgements: the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land, the Turrbal and Jagera...
Rights and Freedoms
Striking the right balance on free speech
Discover how a former Human Rights Commissioner was asked whether the Racial Discrimination Act impinges on freedom of expression under international law.
Rights and Freedoms
National Faith and Civil Marriage Equality Forum
National Faith and Civil Marriage Equality Forum Hosted by Australians 4 Equality Main Committee Room, Parliament House, Canberra Edward Santow, Human Rights Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission Check against Delivery Introduction My late father used to talk about our family’s motley...
Rights and Freedoms
Peering through human rights-tinted glasses
Annual Lecture, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law. Given at the State Library of Victoria on 7 October 2016. This year, we celebrate (or mourn, according to your perspective) the 60th anniversary of the first computer to defeat a human in chess. It occurred, predictably enough, in Los Alomos, and...
Rights and Freedoms
Jessie Street Trust Annual Lunch 2016
Jessie Street Trust Annual Lunch - I am pleased to join you today to honour the work and annual birthday of Jessie Mary Grey Lillingston Street, a remarkable, and very modern Australian woman. Well before the First World War, she was an advocate for many of the social issues we care about today; equality for women, constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians, world peace and for disarmament.
Rights and Freedoms
Human rights across the Tasman: a widening gulf
I am honoured to have been invited to give this lecture at the Law School of the University of Canterbury, funded by the generosity of the Sir Eric Hotung Fellowship. While I had settled the subject matter of this lecture, I thought it would be helpful to know what other Hotung Fellows had discussed...
Rights and Freedoms
Female Genital Mutilation Conference
Check against delivery Female Genital Mutilation Conference A Human Rights Perspective I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and their elders past and present. May I welcome each of you to the Australian Human Rights Commission. Congratulations...
Rights and Freedoms
Another 'aberration' shows that 18C is the problem and must be changed
State and federal governments should reform laws that make offensive acts unlawful and refocus them on protecting free speech and stopping workplace and public harassment. This week a news story broke about a complaint made under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act by a Queensland University...
Rights and Freedoms
Logic says Valizadeh shouldn't get a visa
Daryush "Roosh" Valizadeh’s freedom of speech won’t be suppressed if the Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, denies him a visa. In the past few days there have been increasing calls on the Federal Government to block so-called ‘neo-masculinist’ Valizadeh from entering Australia. Outraged politicians...
Rights and Freedoms
Tony Blackshield Lecture
HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE OVERREACH OF EXECUTIVE DISCRETION: CITIZENSHIP, ASYLUM SEEKERS AND WHISTLEBLOWERS It is a special pleasure for me to speak in honour of Professor Blackshield, who is a long time colleague of mine in the law. He is a constitutional law scholar of the highest order and one of the...
Rights and Freedoms
Finding a balance for freedom of religion
Those of different beliefs need to be active in reshaping the conversation about religious freedom if it is to be preserved in law. Yesterday, the Australian Human Rights Commission hosted the first of many religious freedom round tables. These round tables have resulted from a year-long consultation...
Rights and Freedoms
Introduction of the Religious Freedom Roundtable
Thank you. Thank you to the Attorney-General for his presence this morning. I know he has to run because he has commitments in Canberra, but I greatly appreciate his efforts to come this morning to support the discussions we are about to have. I’d also like to thank the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Professor Gillian Triggs, who will be present for part of this morning as an observer.
Rights and Freedoms
Human rights and the overreach of executive discretion: citizenship, asylum seekers and whistleblowers
HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE OVERREACH OF EXECUTIVE DISCRETION: CITIZENSHIP, ASYLUM SEEKERS AND WHISTLEBLOWERS GILLIAN TRIGGS [*] (Annual Tony Blackshield Lecture delivered at Macquarie Law School, Macquarie University, 5 November 2015) I It is a special pleasure for me to speak in honour of Professor...