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Catherine Branson welcomed guests, in particular international guests and acknowledged the traditional owners of the land. She thanked the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions for co-hosting the seminar. She acknowledged the importance of the right to be free from torture, and congratulated the Australian Government for recognising the rights of those deprived of their liberty…

10.1 Education Key findings of Review ADFA provided undergraduates with limited education about healthy and respectful relationships, issues regarding consent, the meaning and appropriateness of sexist language and behaviour, and issues regarding controlling and threatening behaviour. The 2011 Unacceptable Behaviour Survey indicated that incidents of inappropriate conduct and inappropriate …

Within months of the `First Fleet' arrival at Sydney Cove in 1788 there was `open animosity' as Indigenous people protested against `the Europeans cutting down trees, taking their food and game, and driving them back into others' territories'. Bitter conflict followed as Aboriginal people engaged in `guerilla warfare - plundering crops, burning huts, and driving away stock' to be met by `punitive…

This report to the Attorney-General concerns an inquiry by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission ("the Commission") into a complaint made under the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986 (Cth) ("the HREOCA"). The subject of this report is a complaint of age discrimination made by Mr Andrew Hamilton who was employed by the Commonwealth in the…

"There have been times in our history when Australia has been generous and open hearted and times when it has been very mean. In 1938 at the Evian Conference about dealing with Jewish and other refugees from Hitler, Australia took a flint hearted position, saying that we did not want to import Europe's problems, or to increase racial differences, and that refugees should get back in the…

I attach a report of my inquiry into complaints by Mr Huong Hai Nguyen and Mr Austin Okoye against the Commonwealth of Australia and GSL (Australia) Pty Ltd, pursuant to section 11(1)(f)(ii) of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986 (Cth).

Between 1 September 2008 and 22 November 2011, 180 young Indonesians who said that they were children arrived in Australia, having worked as crew on boats bringing asylum seekers to Australia. These young people were often fishermen from impoverished communities in the south and east of Indonesia. Many of them have spent long periods of time in immigration detention without being charged, or…

Part II - THE MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION AND MULITCULTURAND AND INDIGENOUS AFFIARS (DIMIA) AND THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN DEPARMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES (DHS) RELATING TO CHILD PROTECTION NOTIFICATIONS AND CHILD WELFARE ISSUES PERTAINING TO CHILDREN IN IMMIGRATION DETENTION IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

As part of the Ismaع project, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (the Commission) investigated existing initiatives that address anti-Arab or anti-Muslim prejudice at a local, state and federal level across Australia. We conducted research and requested information about current initiatives from seven federal government agencies, 37 state and territory government agencies …

The Government has to explain why it happened. What was the intention? I have to know why I was taken. I have to know why I was given the life I was given and why I'm scarred today. Why was my Mum meant to suffer? Why was I made to suffer with no Aboriginality and no identity, no culture? Why did they think that the life they gave me was better than the one my Mum would give me?

This chapter addresses the impact of the detention environment on the mental health of children and the measures taken to address their mental health needs. Consistent with the breadth of protection given to the welfare of children under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Inquiry uses the term mental health to describe the psychological well-being of children as well as…

Until December 2009, Ali Jasmin lived with his family in Bala Uring, a small village on the island of Flores, Indonesia. His family bought fish from the local fishermen and sold them at the market. Ali had completed seven years of schooling and worked as a fisherman in a little town not far from his home.

“I saw an Afghani guy cut his own throat in my compound – he was working with me in the kitchen that day, and after work, he went outside and he cut himself up everywhere. It was really hard. Even the officers started crying when this happened”. [17–year–old asylum-seeker]

In recent years there have been significant developments at the international level that impact upon the recognition and protection of the human rights of indigenous peoples. Most notably, there have been: i) reforms to the machinery of the United Nations (UN) and the emphasis given to human rights within that system; ii) the making of global commitments to action, through the Millennium…