Search results

One of the underlying goals of international and Australian laws relating to children with disabilities is to provide the highest possible level of support and assistance in the least restrictive way. Laws, policies and programs should be designed to ensure that children with disabilities have the opportunity to participate, to the maximum extent possible, in all aspects of the general community.

The Refugee Council of Australia welcomes the Inquiry by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission into Children in Immigration Detention. In our opinion, this is a very timely and important Inquiry into an area of great significance to Australia as a nation and to the way that Australia is perceived internationally.

In my role as Social Justice Commissioner I am required to produce two annual reports on Indigenous human rights issues – the Social Justice Report and the Native Title Report. The reports, which are tabled in federal Parliament, analyse the major changes and challenges in Indigenous affairs over the past year. They also include recommendations to government that promote and protect the rights of Indigenous Australians. This easy-to-read Community Guide offers a snapshot of some of the key issues in both reports.

Learn about an inquiry into the treatment of individuals suspected of people smuggling offences who say that they are children.

An entrenched pattern of disadvantage and dispossession continues to wreak havoc and destruction in Indigenous families and communities. This situation has been described in the preceding chapters of this Part. State and Territory legislation, policy and practice in the areas of child welfare, care and protection, adoption and juvenile justice do not comply with the evaluation criteria established by the Inquiry (see Chapter 15).

COMMISSIONER OZDOWSKI: Welcome to every one, I think we will start rolling and I would like to formally open this public hearing which is one of series of hearings conducted around Australia. My name is Sev Ozdowski and I am the Human Rights Commissioner and with me are my two Assistant Commissioners. To my right is Dr Trang Thomas, Professor of Psychology at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. And to my left is Dr Robin Sullivan who is Queensland's Children's Commissioner. At the end of the table on the left is Vanessa Lesnie who is the counsel assisting the Inquiry.

The President of HREOC is responsible for the investigation and conciliation of complaints lodged under federal anti-discrimination and human rights law. Staff of HREOC’s Complaint Handling Section (CHS) assist the President to investigate and resolve complaints. The CHS also provides information to the public about the law and the complaint process through the Complaint Information Service and a range of community education and training activities.

This submission makes brief comment on the education of children in detention. It provides a more complete picture of the education services offered to these children by the Department of Education, Training and Employment in South Australia (hereafter the department) after they have been processed as refugees and released into the community. Note is also made of a group of children who have been sent to Adelaide as detainees in a place of alternative detention and also of recent discussions on the issue of children in detention being enrolled at Woomera Area School.