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Commissioners: DR SEV OZDOWSKI, Human Rights Commissioner MRS ROBIN SULLIVAN, Queensland Children's Commissioner PROFESSOR TRANG THOMAS, Professor of Psychology, Melbourne Institute of Technology MS VANESSA LESNIE, Secretary to the Inquiry

I have spent a lot of time this past year convincing people from all walks of life that the challenges facing Indigenous peoples in this country are not insurmountable.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) was established in 1990 by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Act 1989 (Cth). The Act made provisions for the establishment of 35 representative Regional Councils on behalf of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia.

We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have not shared in the health gains enjoyed by other Australians in the last 100 years. It is a national scandal that Indigenous Australians live 17 years less than other Australians. Indigenous Australians continue to needlessly suffer and die early, not from a lack of solutions or government commitments…

Some of these principles relate to civil and political rights which defend the fundamental right to life, and states that no one can be tortured, enslaved, arbitrarily imprisoned, made to do forced labour, or be restricted from such basic freedoms as movement, expression and association. Such principles are stated in negative terms such as ‘freedom from’ (discrimination, torture etc).

The Remote and Rural Training Unit in Dubbo NSW has taken a proactive approach to two familiar problems that face small rural towns: the departure of young people from country towns and the inability of these towns to attract and retain health care workers. It is well documented that there are severe shortages of trained health professionals in remote and rural regions throughout Australia…

On 5 November 2009 we hosted the Australian and New Zealand Race Relations Roundtable 2009, highlighting the human rights of international students as a major issue. During the year under review, we directly engaged with over 700 international students and student representatives to identify key human rights issues, participated in numerous government and academic forums focusing on international…

Australia is a signatory to a number of International Conventions, which are relevant to mandatory detention of children in Australia’s immigration detention centres. Under International law, each of the conventions that Australia has ratified is binding on the Australian state, which is obliged to bring its domestic laws into conformity with their stipulations. In Australia, International…

The Commission is an national independent statutory body established under the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986. It has a President and five Commissioners. The five positions are currently held by three persons. Please refer to the organisational chart on page 16 for further information.

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of Australia’s introduction of mandatory immigration detention and the eighteenth anniversary of the system of mandatory, indefinite immigration detention. In the current context, it is apt to recall that mandatory detention was introduced in reaction to the arrival of asylum seekers by boat, with concerns about a potential ‘influx’…

12.1 Accommodation 12.2 Facilities 12.3 Provision of clothing and footwear 12.4 Recreation and play 12.5 Education 12.6 Security measures 12.7 Policy guiding the transfer of children to Nauru 12.8 Impact of detention on children 12.9 Transfer of unaccompanied children 12.10 Child protection and allegations of abuse 12.11 Health services 12.12 Republic of Nauru Hospital 12.13 Mental health…

The International Labour Organisation Convention 111 deals with discrimination in employment and occupation. Australian adherence to this Convention provides that all people have the right to equal treatment in employment and occupation without discrimination on the basis of: