Search results

Australian Human Rights Commission President Gillian Triggs and Deputy Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Robynne Quiggin today launch the Social Justice and Native Title Report 2016. The document is a state-of-the-nation report on the social justice and native title issues affecting Indigenous Australians in 2016. Major developments during the year include the…

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 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.

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…

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…

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…

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar AO says the report into the deaths of 13 Aboriginal children and young people must be the turning point for action. The West Australian Coroner Ros Fogliani has today handed down her report into the suicides in the Kimberley region between November 12 and March 2016. Commissioner Oscar said unlike the many…

Learn how the Human Rights Commission is deeply concerned about the safety and wellbeing of teenagers who were kept in adult detention centres.

Commissioner June Oscar AO has given her support to the reported recommendations of the Federal Government’s Northern Territory Regional Controller Dorelle Anderson to introduce temporary alcohol restrictions across communities in Central Australia following a recent increase in crime and violence in the region. 

A statement from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar AO: “My heart goes out to the First Nations woman and her daughter who were allegedly attacked on Saturday by a man displaying white supremacist insignia in Perth. A racially-motivated attack is not only a physical assault, it is an attempt to terrorise people for who they are and an attempt to…