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The Commission is a national independent statutory body established under the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986. It has a President and five Commissioners. The five positions are currently held by three persons.

Sexual harassment has been unlawful across Australia for almost twenty years with 2004 marking the twentieth anniversary of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) (Sex Discrimination Act). [2] Over that period, community awareness of the existence of sexual harassment, particularly in the area of employment, has grown considerably.

Sexual harassment is an unwelcome sexual advance, unwelcome request for sexual favours or other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature which makes a person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated, where a reasonable person would anticipate that reaction in the circumstances. [11] The Sex Discrimination Act defines the nature and circumstances in which sexual harassment is unlawful. [12]

The landscape of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) is under severe ecological stress. Issues such as salinity, poor water quality, stressed forests, dried wetlands, threatened native species, feral animals and noxious weeds are commonplace within the MDB. The reasons for this dramatic decline in river health are caused by water mismanagement including reversal of natural flow cycles and over allocation of water licences. Generations of bad farm practices such as deforestation have also played a major role in the ecological disaster that is the MDB.[1]

This is my fifth Social Justice Report as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. In the course of this report I look back at developments over the past five years to ascertain the extent to which we are moving towards achieving long term, sustainable improvements in the situation of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and the extent to which government policy making and program delivery is inhibiting such improvement.

The International Labour Organisation Convention 111 deals with discrimination in employment and occupation. Australian adherence to this Convention provides that all people have the right to equal treatment in employment and occupation without discrimination on the basis of:

This paper is about one of the biggest challenges facing Australia in the 21st century: balancing paid work and family responsibilities. It's about how we live today, and how we want to live tomorrow. It's about valuing care, valuing families, and valuing happiness.

Obligations to ensure effective participation exist in nearly all the main human rights treaties. These obligations have been synthesised into the principle of free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples.

When I commenced writing this chapter in 2008, Australia did not have a national Indigenous languages policy. However in August 2009, for the first time in Australia’s history, the Commonwealth Government launched a strategy for preserving Indigenous languages: Indigenous Languages - A National Approach 2009 (National Approach). The National Approach sets out the Commonwealth Government’s plan to preserve Indigenous languages through targeted actions. They are:

This is the Interim Report of the National Inquiry into Employment and Disability. The Inquiry was announced on 4 March 2005 and is due to issue its final report by the end of 2005.

This report is my second as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and marks a transition from a calendar year reporting period to a financial year to comply with s.46(1)(a) of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act (1986) (Cth). As the Native Title Report 2004 reported on the period January to December 2004, this report covers the period January to June 2005.

1) Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD): additional information to Australia's 10th, 11th and 12th periodic reports under CERD, March 2000;

Australia is a federation comprised of a Federal (or Commonwealth) Government, six state and two territory governments. For convenience, in this chapter references to states include references to territories.

‘Finding my Family’, Rooth Wilay Robertson My painting depicts each family member, with all the different skin colours, as puzzle pieces finally all joined up to complete our story.

Workers’ compensation schemes are intended to provide compensation to an employee who is incapacitated because of a work-related accident or to an employee’s dependants if the employee dies because of a work-related accident.

After the Native Welfare Act 1954 Aboriginal children were removed under the Child Welfare Act 1947 and subsequent child welfare legislation. However the Commissioner for Native Affairs remained the legal guardian of all ‘native’ children, except those made wards under the Child Welfare Act, until 1963.

<p><a name="anchor" id="anchor"></a> </p> <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="BodyText" --><h2>Native Title Reports 2007</h2> <ul> <li><a href="/social_justice/nt_report/ntreport07/index.html">Back to Contents</a></li> </ul> <h3>Downloads in PDF</h3> <p><a href="/sites/default/files/content/social_justice/nt_report/ntreport07/pdf/ntr2007.pdf">Download the full report</a> (8.22 MB)</p> <h4>Chapters</h4> <ul> <li> <p><a href="/sites/default/files/content/social_justice/nt_report/ntreport07/pdf/ntr07_cover.pdf">Native Title Report 2007 Book Cover</a> (1.66 MB)</p></li></ul>

Every year on December 10, we commemorate the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. During 2009, the Australian Government conducted a series of human rights consultations on human rights in Australia.