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The current mandatory detention policy of the Commonwealth of Australia breaches the fundamental principle of the rights of the child which is that children should be able to develop to their full potential. The policy breaches every article of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The policy violates the right to health as established by international law.

The federal government on 21 June 2007 announced measures to tackle sexual abuse against Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory. The legislation it passed to implement the measures has significant implications for Aboriginal owned and controlled land.

The strong, vibrant and committed Noongar peoples of the South West corner of Australia had their native title determination over Perth returned to square one. The Full Federal Court found that the first judge had made a number of errors in his decision and have sent the case back for consideration by a new judge, leaving the Noongar peoples uncertain about the future of their rights over the land. This is despite the Western Australian government openly acknowledging the Noongar peoples as the Traditional Owners of the land.

"We reaffirm our commitment to continue our struggle to eliminate all forms of violence and torture against children and to create a world that protects and fulfils the rights of all children." [1]

The international human rights norms against which practices of racism and discrimination against Indigenous people must be judged are the guarantees of equality before the law and racial non-discrimination. These norms are recognised in every major international human rights treaty, convention and declaration. They are recognised and protected in the following instruments to which Australia is a party.

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of Australia’s introduction of mandatory immigration detention and the eighteenth anniversary of the system of mandatory, indefinite immigration detention. In the current context, it is apt to recall that mandatory detention was introduced in reaction to the arrival of asylum seekers by boat, with concerns about a potential ‘influx’ spurring bipartisan support for increasingly tough measures on persons who arrived in Australia without a visa.[8]

My name is Keysar Trad. I am the Vice President of the Lebanese Muslims Association in Sydney. The Lebanese Muslims Association was established in 1961 by a group of Lebanese Muslim citizens to advocate on behalf of Lebanese and other Muslims in the Australian community. We have over 1100 financial members and over tens of thousands who use our facilities on festive occasions, many or our members (financial and non financial) meet at our mosques five times a day to offer worship and over 5000 members meet every Friday at midday for worship services.

Kristina Barnett - Diversity Directions Inc. Diana Collett - Child & Youth Health and South Australians for Justice for Refugees Tina Dolgopol - President of Action for Children Inc Julie Redman - Chair of the Children and the Law Committee, Law Society of South Australia Rosemary Steen - Chair of the Coalition, Children and the Law Committee, Law Society of South Australia Carey Trundle - Children and the Law Committee, Law Society of South Australia

In recent years a mutual obligation approach has been adopted to reform public policy on welfare and employment issues. There has been much discussion about the applicability of this approach within an Indigenous policy context. It is seen by many as consistent with Indigenous cultural values such as reciprocity and an emphasis on community, as well as suggesting an antidote to the damage caused by intergenerational poverty, of which long-term welfare dependency and a crippling short-term local cash economy are often features.

COMMISSIONER OZDOWSKI: We would like formally to open this Public Hearing in Melbourne on 31 May. My name is Sev Ozdowski and I am the Human Rights Commissioner. I am assisted by two Assistant Commissioners - to my right is Dr Trang Thomas who is also Professor of Psychology at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and to my left is Mrs Robin Sullivan, who is the Queensland Children's Commissioner. Also at the table are two counsels assisting.

This discussion paper briefly discusses federal laws which exclude same-sex couples from accessing financial and work-related entitlements. The paper discusses the following areas of federal law:

</B>The Yankunytjatjara and Pitjantjatjara and other Indigenous people of the town of Yulara, in the shadows of Uluru, had their claim for compensation for extinguishment of native title rejected by Justice Sackville in the Federal Court (the Jango case)1in 2006. The Noongar people (the Noongar case)2 had their claim for native title over the metropolitan area of Perth upheld. Further north, around Darwin, the Larrakia people (the Larrakia case)3 learned that the common law would not recognise their native title when Justice Mansfied handed down his decision.