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14 December 2012Book page
Social Justice Report 2003: Appendix one: A statistical overview of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia
This collection of statistics has been chosen for their relevance in highlighting the key characteristics of the Indigenous population. It focuses on key areas such as health, education, employment, housing, and contact with criminal justice and welfare systems. Where possible, the data is presented in a way that identifies absolute and relative change in the situation of Indigenous peoples over the past five and ten years, and provides some international comparisons. -
LGBTIQ+14 December 2012Webpage
Marriage Equality (2012)
The Australian Human Rights Commission considers that the fundamental human rights principle of equality means that civil marriage should be available, without discrimination, to all couples, regardless of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity. The Commonwealth Parliament, and some state parliaments are now considering legislation that would provide all couples with the same access to civil marriage that is currently confined to opposite-sex couples. This paper considers how the human rights principle of equality underpins legislative recognition of marriage equality. -
Legal14 December 2012Webpage
Inquiry into the Water Amendment Bill 2008
The Commission supports and commends the relevant state governments’ and the ACT government’s progress in referring constitutional powers to the Commonwealth, enabling water resources in the Murray-Darling Basin to be managed in the national interest, optimising environmental, economic and social outcomes. -
Age Discrimination9 April 2013Publication
The Road So Far – the Age Discrimination Act 2004 (Cth)
This paper replaces the previous Commission paper - ‘Roadmap to the Age Discrimination Act’. It includes an update on subsequent changes made to the Act. The paper will also look at the ways in which the Act is used by members of the public in exercising their rights, specifically in relation to making complaints and seeking temporary exemptions. -
Legal14 December 2012Webpage
Commission Submission - ON COMMON DIFFICULTIES FACING ABORIGINAL WITNESSES
The communication difficulties that may be faced by Aboriginal people in the legal system have long been recognised.1 In the Queensland context, these have been well documented by Dr Diana Eades 2 and the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC).3 These issues are also dealt with in detail in the Equal Treatment Benchbook of the Supreme Court of Queensland (‘the Queensland Benchbook’)4 and in Aboriginal English in the Courts: A Handbook, (‘The Queensland Handbook’) prepared by the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney-General to assist judges and other members of the l -
Legal14 December 2012Webpage
Submission: Australia's Future Tax System (Retirement Income System) (2009)
The Australian Human Rights Commission (‘the Commission’)[1] makes this submission to the Review Panel on Australia’s future tax system (‘the Review’). The submission specifically addresses Australia’s retirement income system. -
Legal14 December 2012Webpage
Federal Discrimination Law: Chapter 4 - The Sex Discrimination Act
The definitions of discrimination include both direct and indirect discrimination, with the exception of the definition of discrimination on the ground of family responsibilities, which is limited to direct discrimination. -
Complaint Information Service14 December 2012Publication
ADR as a tool for social change: a discussion (2008)
Human rights and anti-discrimination law in Australia, as in many countries in the Asia Pacific, provides for complaints about discrimination and violations of human rights to be resolved by conciliation. The use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in this context has been criticised. In particular, it has been claimed that the individualised form of the complaint process, coupled with the confidential nature of conciliation outcomes, restricts the social reformative potential of human rights and anti-discrimination law. -
14 December 2012Book page
Native Title Report 2000: Chapter 4: Indigenous heritage
The recognition of native title by the High Court in 1992 was a significant development in the legal apparatus for protecting Indigenous culture. Under the concept of native title it is possible that sacred and significant sites and objects might be protected, not within the historical category of Aboriginal heritage, but as matters valued in contemporary Indigenous culture with current significance to a people whose culture is ongoing. In addition, under native title such protection could be provided, not as an act of beneficence by government, but as a matter of legal right. -
14 December 2012Book page
Social Justice Report 2005 : Chapter 2 : Achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality within a generation - A human rights based approach
Improving the health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is a longstanding challenge for governments in Australia. While there have been improvements made in some areas since the 1970s (notably in reducing high rates of infant mortality1) overall progress has been slow and inconsistent. The inequality gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians remains wide and has not been progressively reduced. -
14 December 2012Book page
Achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality within a generation - A human rights based approach
Improving the health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is a longstanding challenge for governments in Australia. While there have been improvements made in some areas since the 1970s (notably in reducing high rates of infant mortality1) overall progress has been slow and inconsistent. The inequality gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians remains wide and has not been progressively reduced. -
Commission – General14 December 2012Speech
President speeches: The Potential Role of National Human Rights Institutions in the Pacific
This paper advocates that National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) have a very valuable role to play in the Pacific, and that the promotion and protection of human rights in the Pacific would benefit immensely by Pacific nations each establishing a NHRI. -
Disability Rights30 June 2015Publication
Mental Health Legislation and Human Rights
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. -
14 December 2012Book page
A Time to Value - Part C
The interim paper, Valuing Parenthood: Options for paid maternity leave set out an extensive range of objectives that paid maternity leave could meet. [242] Many of these objectives were dependent on the structure of the scheme that was implemented. -
14 December 2012Book page
Commission Website: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention
This submission will focus on the current Australian immigration detention regime as it applies to minors. The regime will be examined based on data and information made available by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (“DIMIA”) and supporting documentation ranging from government publications, the Flood Inquiry and testimonies given to the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission “HREOC” under oath. -
14 December 2012Book page
3. Setting the Scene - Children in Immigration Detention
I want to tell you that actually I spent about fifteen nights in the ride to Australia. I was in a small boat if you want to call that a boat, because it was smaller than that, with lots of difficulties. When I saw [we were] getting near Australia I was becoming a little bit hopeful. When we passed Darwin I got to the detention centre as soon as I looked at these barbed wires my mind was full of fear. That was the time that I experienced fear ... -
Complaint Information Service14 December 2012Publication
Behind closed doors: Approaches to resolving complaints of sexual harassment in employment
This paper looks specifically at the issue of sexual harassment in employment and approaches to resolving associated complaints that are brought before the Australian Human Rights Commission ("AHRC"). -
14 December 2012Book page
Native Title Report 2004 : Introduction
This, my first report under s209 of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) (NTA), is part of a larger project that commenced prior to my appointment as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner in July 2004. The project aims to investigate how native title can be utilised to improve the economic and social conditions of Indigenous peoples' lives. -
14 December 2012Book page
The Right to a Discrimination-Free Workplace
The prohibition on discrimination in employment is a relatively recent, but now well-established, feature of the Australian legal environment. Laws prohibiting discrimination in the workplace in Australia date back to 1966 when South Australia introduced the Prohibition of Discrimination Act 1966 (SA), to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race in aspects of employment and in the provision of goods and services.[1] -
14 December 2012Book page
Native Title Report 2002: Discrimination and native title
The resolution of the debate as to whether the extinguishment of native title by the common law and the Native Title Act 1993 (Cwlth) (‘NTA’) is racially discriminatory, depends upon the interpretation given to its two essential components: extinguishment and discrimination. The interpretation that the High Court has given to the extinguishment provisions of the NTA and its relationship with the common law was the subject of the chapter 2. It is to the second of these components, the meaning of discrimination as it applies to the extinguishment of native title, that I now turn.