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As a sovereign country, Australia has a right to decide who is allowed to enter and stay in the country. However, with this right comes a set of legal responsibilities.

The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be … used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child requires Australia to protect children's right to cultural identity, language and religion. It places a responsibility on the Department to facilitate their religious and cultural practices, such as worship, diet, health and hygiene.

On 13 February 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, on behalf of the Australian Parliament, made a historic and long overdue national Apology to the Stolen Generations. With eloquence and emotion, Prime Minister Rudd said what so many Australians have wanted to say, and what so many Indigenous peoples have needed to hear:

On behalf of ASTSS I would like to thank you for inviting us to this meeting. Our Association consists of professionals of different disciplines whose aim is to diagnose, treat and prevent major stresses and traumas and their consequences. Some of our members have expressed concern from their clinical experience that traumatized detainees have been further traumatized, and as well, that carers for detainees have been secondarily affected. The following is a summary of their experiences. It is consistent with other scientific knowledge in the field.

The National Federation of Organisations Representing Parents of Non-government School Students National Secretariat PO Box 1894 North Sydney NSW 2059 Telephone: (02) 9955 7091 Fax (02) 9923 2723 Email:director@austparents.edu.au

The 2000 Social Justice Report is the second by Dr Jonas. It tabled in both houses of the federal Parliament on 28 March 2001. The theme of the report is reconciliation and human rights.

The Inquiry received 346 submissions, including 64 confidential submissions. Detailed information was provided by organisations representing detainees, human rights and legal bodies, members of the public, religious bodies, state government agencies and a range of non-government policy and service-providing organisations.

2. The obligation to respect and to ensure respect for human rights and humanitarian law includes the duty: to prevent violations, to investigate violations, to take appropriate action against the violators, and to afford remedies and reparation to victims. Particular attention must be paid to the prevention of gross violations of human rights and to the duty to prosecute and punish perpetrators of crimes under international law.

Sex discrimination remains a harsh reality for many Australian women, who continue to experience unfair treatment in the workplace and other spheres of life, with complaints on the grounds of SDA rising in recent years:

The Commissioner inquired into the adequacy and appropriateness of Australia's treatment of child asylum seekers and other children who are, or have been, held in immigration detention, including:

The following chapter summarises the findings and recommendations made in each of Chapters 4 – 16 in this report. This chapter should be read in conjunction with Appendix 1 which sets out the list of legislation to be amended in order to eliminate discrimination against same-sex couples and their children.

Following a successful application for asylum, children - either individually or as part of their family group - are generally released from detention into the community on a three-year temporary protection visa (TPV).

Over the millennia, Indigenous peoples have developed a close and unique connection with the lands and environments in which they live. They have established distinct systems of knowledge, innovation and practices relating to the uses and management of biological diversity on these lands and environments.