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While the role and functions of HREOC as set out in legislation are primarily directed towards human rights issues within Australia, HREOC undertakes an international education and training role, with a specific focus on agencies in the Asia Pacific region. In 2006-07, as in past years, most of this has taken the form of technical cooperation programs with other countries.

Over the past year, there has been significant concern expressed about petrol sniffing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities at the national level. The phenomenon of petrol-sniffing is, however, not well-understood and there is no reliable national data on the number of people involved and the extent of resulting damage to individuals and communities.

Discussion about people with disability in the open workplace tends to focus on whether a person can find a job, rather than keep a job. While successfully obtaining a job is clearly the first step for a person seeking employment in the open workplace, it is only the first step.

In its communique of 5 April 2002, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to trial a whole-of-government cooperative approach in up to 10 communities or regions of Australia. Appendix 2 of the report provides a detailed overview of the structure of the trials, and progress in each trial site.

The term 'Shared Responsibility Agreement' (SRA) describes agreements between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and groups and Australian governments based on the principle of mutual obligation. The principle of mutual obligation requires both parties, the community and the Government to each contribute towards making the agreement work. This fact sheet looks at SRAs in the light…

Over 1996-2001, there was an estimated difference of approximately 17 years between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous life expectation.[2]

The defining feature of the past year has been the focus on reconciliation ... But as we reach this crucial stage in relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, reconciliation has come to mean different things to different people. Reconciliation has been described as a 'peoples movement' ...having reached a level of community support that is now unstoppable. For the government it…

In the Social Justice Report 1999, my first report as Social Justice Commissioner, I identified four key themes and challenges that existed in the approach of the federal government to Indigenous policy making at the time. These were moving beyond welfare dependency, accountability, participation and reconciliation.[1] Since the release of that report approximately four years ago, the key themes…

You would be hard pressed to find a newspaper, television or radio station that did not make mention of Sorry Day activities and National Reconciliation events over the past week.

The issue of participation of people with disability in the open workforce has been the subject of much public debate in recent months. This is largely the result of the 'Welfare to Work' package announced in the May 2005 Commonwealth Budget. However, the issue is a longstanding one, as indicated in the submissions to the Inquiry.

WORK ABILITY PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY IN THE OPEN WORKPLACE INTERIM REPORT OF THE NATIONAL INQUIRY INTO EMPLOYMENT AND DISABILITY Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission August 2005 Table of Contents Executive Summary and interim recommendations Abbreviations 1. Background to the Inquiry 2. Information needs, costs and risks for employers 3. Information needs, costs and risks for people…

Along with its human rights education and promotion function, the Commission undertakes a monitoring role in relation to human rights standards. This monitoring role ranges across the work of the individual Commissioners who examine and report issues of race, sex and disability discrimination and human rights, to the assessment of legislative proposals and presentation of submissions through the…

This is the Interim Report of the National Inquiry into Employment and Disability. The Inquiry was announced on 4 March 2005 and is due to issue its final report by the end of 2005.