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DR OZDOWSKI: I would like to formally open the second day of hearings in Adelaide. This is one of the hearings conducted around Australia for the National Inquiry into Children in Detention. My name is Sev Ozdowski, I'm the Human Rights Commissioner. With me is Mrs Robin Sullivan to my left, who is Queensland Children's Commissioner, and Dr Trang Thomas, on my right, is Professor of Psychology at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. They are Assistant Commissioners helping me with the Inquiry.

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8.1 The profiles indicate a growing awareness by custodial and medical staff of issues concerning the proper treatment of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous prisoners. However, implementation of the recommendations is uneven. Some recommendations have not been implemented in any jurisdiction.

This report covers my final year as the Race Discrimination Commissioner, a position I have occupied for five years alongside my position as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner.

In June 2003, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) engaged the Centre for Cultural Research (CCR) at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) to investigate Australian Arabs' and Muslims' experiences of post-September 11 racism, the extent to which these experiences were going unreported and the reasons for this. The CCR team was charged with addressing the following questions:

The Complaint Handling Section (CHS) is responsible for investigating and conciliating complaints lodged under federal anti-discrimination and human rights law. Accordingly, the CHS plays a key role in fulfilling the Commission’s objective of delivering an Australian society in which human rights are protected.

ChilOut was established in July 2001 by a group of concerned parents and citizens who felt compelled to advocate and act on behalf of children and their parents living in Australia's immigration detention centres (IDC).

The Commission would like to thank the children and young people who participated in the project and demonstrated great courage in allowing us to hear and tell their often painful and traumatic stories, in a hope that things would change for the better.

While feedback in relation to the legal system was actively sought throughout all of the consultations, a number of targeted consultation sessions with individuals and organisations specifically involved or engaged in the legal system were also undertaken. These included: