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Children's Rights

Reaching the highest standard of health for adolescents

Speech given at the Australian Association for Adolescent Health 2017 Conference Date: 10am - 11am, Thursday 6 July 2017 Introduction Good morning. It’s a pleasure to be here to speak about the work I have done as Australia’s first National Children’s Commissioner. Before I begin, I would like to...

Category, Speech
Children's Rights

Is jail the answer for Australian kids?

This year around 900 children and young people will spend Christmas in jail. More than 5 per cent of this population are between 10 and 12 years old and 74 per cent of this age group are Indigenous. Most have been charged or convicted with petty crimes, like graffiti, vandalism, shop lifting or fare...

Category, Opinion
Rights and Freedoms

Access and equity: human rights in practice

Speech to SydWest Multicultural Services AGM Edward Santow – speaking notes – CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Acknowledgements: the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land, the Darug people Dr Chandrika Subramaniyan (Chair, SydWest Multicultural Services) Elfa Moraitakis (CEO, SydWest) Introduction...

Category, Speech
Age Discrimination

National Press Club speech - Susan Ryan

“The ageing revolution is not over” - Last time I spoke here I called my address “the longevity revolution”, and asked, “crisis or opportunity?”. I intended that question as a challenge but it seems my challenge has not been met. We are as a community, still floundering on the crisis side of the binary. Our approach is still steeped in the language of “burden” and “deficits”. We are still failing to realise the opportunities that longevity can create for us.

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Jessie Street Trust Annual Lunch 2016

Jessie Street Trust Annual Lunch - I am pleased to join you today to honour the work and annual birthday of Jessie Mary Grey Lillingston Street, a remarkable, and very modern Australian woman. Well before the First World War, she was an advocate for many of the social issues we care about today; equality for women, constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians, world peace and for disarmament.

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Human rights across the Tasman: a widening gulf

I am honoured to have been invited to give this lecture at the Law School of the University of Canterbury, funded by the generosity of the Sir Eric Hotung Fellowship. While I had settled the subject matter of this lecture, I thought it would be helpful to know what other Hotung Fellows had discussed...

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

National Press Club speech - Kate Jenkins

‘Accelerating change: gender equality from the household to the workplace’ Kate Jenkins Sex Discrimination Commissioner Australian Human Rights Commission National Press Club 20 April 2016 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY I would like to acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the Traditional Custodians and First...

Category, Speech
Children's Rights

Youth Homelessness Matters Day 2016 – Yfoundations Launch Event

Thank you and good morning everyone. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay my respects to Elders past and present. I also want to thank Yfoundations for the invitation to speak to you all this...

Category, Speech
Legal

Hotung Fellowship Public Lecture 2016

Human rights across the Tasman: a widening gulf. I am honoured to have been invited to give this lecture at the Law School of the University of Canterbury, funded by the generosity of the Sir Eric Hotung Fellowship.

Category, Speech
Age Discrimination

Older Women's Network International Women's Day Conference

I start by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. To all of you here today at the OWN conference, happy International Women’s Day for 2016. It has always been my approach to International Women's Day to mark the things we as women have to celebrate. As older women in Australia at this...

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Australasian Law Reform Agencies Conference

Domestic and family violence and human rights - We all have a right to live our lives free from violence, especially in our relationships, our families and in our homes.

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Achieving a Gender Equal World

Over the last 7 years I have become more and more convinced of one thing - this is my second theme. To deliver equality for women we need to focus on men. We need men taking the message of gender equality to other men. It’s not about men speaking for women or saving women. We can take care of ourselves, thank you very much. It is about men stepping up beside us, working in partnership with us, so that promoting women’s leadership becomes everyone’s business. It’s about men as equal partners with us in ensuring that the WEPs come to life to transform our businesses and communities to move us to a world where – power and leadership is shared equally between men and women.

Category, Speech
LGBTIQ+

I want to hold your hand: LGBTI people have some surprisingly modest aspirations

Visibility remains one of the greatest challenges in tackling the legacy of state-sanctioned discrimination against people on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status. In the past 30 years we’ve made great strides in ensuring people are treated equally before the law...

Category, Opinion

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