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COMMISSIONER OZDOWSKI: Welcome to everyone. I would like to formally open this public hearing, the first of a series of hearings to be conducted around Australia. My name is Sev Ozdowski and I am the Human Rights Commissioner of Australia, and I have with me two Assistant Commissioners; to my right Professor Trang Thomas who is Professor of Psychology at the Royal Melbourne Institute of…

Pursuant to section 11(1)(f)(ii) of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986 (Cth), I attach a report of my inquiry into complaints made by Ms Susan Campbell that the human rights of her daughter were breached by the Commonwealth of Australia. I have found that acts or practices of the Commonwealth were inconsistent with or contrary to the human rights of Ms Campbell’s…

This discussion paper briefly discusses federal laws which exclude same-sex couples from accessing financial and work-related entitlements. The paper discusses the following areas of federal law:

Lateral violence is a multilayered, complex problem and because of this our strategies also need to be pitched at different levels. In Chapter 3 I have looked at the big picture, with the human rights framework as our overarching response to lateral violence. In this Chapter I will be taking our strategies to an even more practical level, looking at how we can create environments of cultural…

This is the third successive Social Justice Report to report on the implementation of the new arrangements for Indigenous affairs at the federal government level. The past two Social Justice Reports have emphasised the importance of governments ensuring the effective participation of Indigenous peoples in decision making that affects our lives. This includes the development of policy, program…

On 21 June 2007, the Australian Government announced a ‘national emergency response to protect Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory’ from sexual abuse and family violence.[1] This has become known as the ‘NT intervention’ or the ‘Emergency Response’. The catalyst for the measures was the release of Report of the Northern Territory Board of Inquiry into…

“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]

Social Justice Report 2011 Back to Contents Appendix 2: Chronology of Events Relating to the Administration of Indigenous Affairs 1 July 2010 – 30 June 2011 DATE EVENT / SUMMARY OF ISSUE 2 July 2010 Torres Strait Islander sea rights recognised by Federal Court The Federal Court recognised the Torres Strait Regional Sea Claim Group’s native title rights over about 37 800sq. km of sea between…

DR OZDOWSKI: This is one of a series of hearings to be conducted around Australia. My name is Dr Sev Ozdowski and I am the Human Rights Commissioner and I am assisted in the Inquiry by two colleagues of mine, Mrs Robin Sullivan who is to the left of me, the Queensland Children's Commissioner. To the right of me is Dr Trang Thomas who is a Professor of Psychology at Melbourne Institute of…

This report contains a summary of observations by the Australian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) following its July 2009 visit to Australia’s immigration detention facilities on Christmas Island. It follows the Commission’s 2006, 2007 and 2008 annual reports on inspections of immigration detention facilities.[1]

For more than a decade, the Australian Human Rights Commission has called for reforms to Australia’s system of mandatory and indefinite immigration detention – both in light of the impacts it has on people’s mental health and wellbeing, and because it leads to breaches of Australia’s international human rights obligations. During this time, the Commission has investigated…

In 2006 the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet made a revealing statement about Indigenous affairs. He argued that his own government’s policy performance in the Indigenous portfolio had been a failure. He went further to say that while well intentioned, the policies and approaches of the past 30 years had contributed to poor outcomes for Indigenous people.