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The ACCG met in Perth, Western Australia on 15 and 16 May 2018.

This is my first annual report as President of the Australian Human Rights Commission. Since commencing my five-year term in October of last year, the people with whom I have met, the stories that I have listened to, and the community centres and immigration detention facilities that I have visited have strengthened my resolve to encourage a better understanding of the place of human rights in Australia. In particular, I am determined to encourage widespread recognition of the relevance of human rights for all people, no matter who they are, where they live or what their circumstances.

In 2015 the Australian Human Rights Commission engaged EY Sweeney to conduct qualitative research to supplement the 2014 quantitative national prevalence survey.

Every three years we are required under our legislation to prepare a new Strategic Plan. We treat this as an opportunity to reflect on our effectiveness in undertaking our functions and duties, and to identify how we can ensure that our future work will result in tangible improvements in human rights for people in Australia.

On 13 August 2012 the Australian Government reintroduced a system of third country processing for asylum seekers who arrive by boat without a valid visa. Under this system these asylum seekers, including children, must be transferred to a third country as soon as is reasonably practicable, unless the Minister for Immigration decides to exclude them from transfer.

This paper presents an indicative analysis of the mental health legislation in each State and Territory in terms of recently agreed international standards - the UN Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and for the Improvement of Mental Health Care. The legislation in every Australian jurisdiction breaches the standards prescribed in the UN Principles in a number of ways. In some jurisdictions these breaches constitute fundamental violations of basic human rights.

This review is a follow-up to Mornington: A Report by the Federal Race Discrimination Commissioner, released in April 1993. That Report was the result of a two-and-a-half year investigation into a range of issues affecting Aboriginal people living on Mornington Island in far north Queensland.

Important High Court cases on freedom of expression Two sets of decisions issued last week by the High Court of Australia highlight the need for continuing discussion of options for improved legislative frameworks to protect freedom of expression and other human rights. In Attorney-General for South Australia v Corporation of the City of Adelaide and Orsa majority of the Court upheld a local ...

The Australian Human Rights Commission is the nation’s independent human rights body. We work to find practical and long-term solutions to the human rights issues facing people in Australia, as well as to build greater understanding and respect for human rights in our community.