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The initial stages of a study about racism at Australian universities being undertaken by the Australian Human Rights Commission have revealed a range of concerns from both students and staff in relation to their experience of racism on university campuses.

Joint media release: Justice Reform Initiative and Australian Human Rights Commission Law and justice leaders, parliamentarians, First Nations leaders, child safety advocates, community service providers, peak organisations, and people with lived experience of child imprisonment from around Australia will come together for a landmark parliamentary event in Canberra on Thursday. Amid an…

Governments must recognise systemic racism and its devastating impacts on Australia’s First Nations peoples and take urgent action to address it, a new report has found. Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman said, “Systemic racism, in law, policies and service delivery, has serious and ongoing consequences, including poor mental and physical health, economic disadvantage,…

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar welcomed the Commonwealth’s funding of the new Wiyi Yani U Thangani Institute for First Nations Gender Justice at the Australian National University. The Institute is the first of its kind in the world and will bring together First Nations researchers to develop and design initiatives to improve outcomes for…

The Queensland Government’s ‘Community Safety Act’ allowing more children to be locked up in the first instance is another step backwards for child justice and community safety, National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds said. “We all want to live in communities where kids can flourish and where everyone is safe, especially children. But this approach to offending by children doesn’t…

Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and Sex Discrimination Commissioner say the findings of a Senate inquiry into murdered and missing First Nations women provide more evidence of how to address violence against women and girls in First Nations communities.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar AO and the Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan have welcomed today’s release of the Reconciliation Barometer. The survey conducted every two years since 2008, measures the progress of reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous Australians. Among the key findings;…

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar AO has launched a dedicated Institute to elevate the voices and solutions of First Nations women and girls – the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Institute for First Nations gender justice. The Australian-first Institute, housed at the Australian National University (ANU) on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country, ensures the…

The report is an outcome of the recent Wiyi Yani U Thangani First Nations Women's Safety Policy Forum which was held virtually in September and which brought together over 150 participants from all around the country, the majority being First Nations women.

This historic event is set to inform a range of new approaches for advancing the rights, health, safety, wellbeing and economic opportunities of First Nations women and girls.

Bold new approaches from First Nations Australian women for improving their future have been unveiled at a historic summit in Canberra, including a new National Framework for Action and a new dedicated First Nations Gender Justice Institute at the Australian National University. The new measures have been highlighted at the Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices) National Summit, Australia’s…

Grave concern over recently released CCTV footage depicting a First Nations child of 13 years of age with an intellectual disability, being forcibly restrained

The Close the Gap Campaign has warned that only systemic reform will make up for the harrowing failure of the last 12 years of government policy on closing the gaps in health equity, social and economic disadvantage for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The 2020 Close the Gap Campaign report, again written by the Lowitja Institute and released today, sets out a blueprint for…

The current and former Social Justice Commissioners have called for political leadership to ensure the recommendations of the Joint Select Committee on constitutional recognition are realised. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar AO and former commissioners Mick Gooda, Professor Tom Calma AO, Dr William Jonas AM and Emeritus Professor Mick Dodson…

First Nations female leaders from across Australia are demanding immediate reform to Western Australia’s approach to youth justice in the wake of today’s riots at the Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre. Hundreds of First Nations women are attending the Wiyi Yani U Thangani National Summit in Canberra this week, including Commissioner for Children and Young People WA Jacqueline McGowan…

Australia’s most significant gathering ever of First Nations women begins in Canberra today. The Summit is designed for First Nations women to speak on their own terms to government, policymakers and service providers about addressing issues affecting First Nations women and girls. Together, they will put forward the actions to reshape many of the policies and programs that impact their…

Australia’s first Children’s Commissioner, Megan Mitchell will on Monday launch her final report – one of the most comprehensive assessments of children’s rights ever produced in Australia. The report makes clear that the mental health of Australian children is not being cared for sufficiently and that Governments must do more to ensure children’s wellbeing. Commissioner Mitchell said: “Not…

150 young First Nations women will gather in Canberra tomorrow to help set an agenda for change in relation to the rights, health, safety, wellbeing and prosperity of young Indigenous women and girls. The Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices) Youth Forum is a precursor to the landmark Wiyi Yani U Thangani National Summit (May 9 – 11), Australia’s most significant gathering ever of First…

Women’s equity and racial equality advocate Juliana Nkrumah AM has been awarded the prestigious Human Rights Medal at the 2023 Australian Human Rights Awards in Sydney tonight. Other awards went to Gabriel Osborne (Young People’s Award), Northern Pictures (Media and Creative Industries Award), Advocacy Tasmania (Community Award) and the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia (Law…

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar AO, and National Children's Commissioner Anne Hollonds have issued a joint statement following the death of a First Nations teenager who had been held in a youth detention unit at the Casuarina adult prison in Perth. Commissioner Oscar: “My thoughts are with the family and community of the 16-year-old boy who passed…