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Commission – General

President Speech: 2009 Human Rights Day Oration

I would like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal peoples of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.

Category, Speech
Commission – General

President speech: NSW Young Lawyers

I would like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and pay my respect to their elders past and present.

Category, Speech
Commission – General

International Human Rights Day address - 2005

International Human Rights Day falls on 10th December each year. It marks the occasion on 10th December 1948 when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Category, Speech
Commission – General

Seventh International Conference for National Human Rights Institutions

Torture and various forms of terrorism have been practiced throughout history, though never on the scale we are now confronted with. The first visual records of police interrogation were discovered in a four thousand year old tomb in ancient Egypt. Since the pharaohs there have been many refinements in methods of inducing physical pain and gathering intelligence, most notably during the Spanish Inquisition, but more recently in the modern totalitarian state.

Category, Speech
Commission – General

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As the world awaits the birth of the new millenium with a level of anxiety we come to associate with expecting parents, I am pleased to note that the United Nations, in nominating 1999 the International Year of Older Persons, has not, at the last, forgotten the grandparents.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

The National Apology to the Stolen Generations one year on (2009)

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the Wurundjeri country, the land where we are meeting today, and thank Joy Murphy Wandin for her warm welcome to country. I pay my respects to your elders and to those who have come before us. I would also like to thank the Wunsyaluv dancers for the dances they have performed for us today.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

The campaign for Indigenous health equality within a generation

I begin by acknowledging the Kaurna people, the traditional owners of the land where we meet today and pay my respects to their elders. I would also like to thank the Department for the Premier and Cabinet and, in particular, Sonia Waters of the Social Inclusion unit for inviting me to speak to you today and I acknowledge my fellow speakers April and Nerida.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

The Integration of Customary Law into the Australian legal system

Good afternoon, I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Noongar people, the traditional owners and custodians of the land where we are gathered today, and pay my respects to their elders. I’d also like to acknowledge my distinguished fellow speakers. My presentation today is focused on customary law. I will refer to Aboriginal customary law, though the points that I will make are equally relevant to Torres Strait Islanders and to their distinct systems of law and governance.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Indigenous Peoples Permanent Sovereignty Over Natural Resources

Furthermore, I would like to thank Professor Mick Dodson and Mr. Parry Agius for the invitation addressed to me to deliver this lecture within the framework of the National Title Conference. In particular, I express my warmest thanks to the Acting Chairperson of the Conference Mr. Parry Agius for his very kind words about my humble work in the field of the protection of the rights of the world's Indigenous Peoples and my background.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

The End in the Beginning: Re(de)finding Aboriginality: Dodson (1994)

I don't care how hard it is. You build Aboriginality or you get nothing. There's no choice about it. If our Aboriginal people cannot change how it is among themselves, then the Aboriginal people will never climb back out of hell. 1

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

Burdekin: NATIONAL INQUIRY

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the launch of the report of the national inquiry into the human rights of people with mental illness. This report is the result of extensive research; public hearings in all States and Territories; and oral evidence and written submissions from over 1300 witnesses. I have been extremely fortunate to have the assistance of two commissioners with a long standing interest in the area of mental health - Dame Margaret Guilfoyle and Mr David Hall.

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

Access to premises – nearly there? (2009)

Since the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) came into force in March 1993 complaints to the Australian Human Rights Commission and State/Territory anti-discrimination agencies have shown that while a building might meet the requirements of building law it could still be the subject of a successful complaint under anti-discrimination law.

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

Maguire: Presentation to Ozewai Conference

I've always been fascinated by numbers. Although remembering some of my maths exam results, I'm not so sure that they have been as fascinated by me. If you ask a group of people to say the first number that comes into their heads, you'll get a lot of 7's. Perhaps it's because we all have an intuitive awareness that 7 is the smallest number of faces of a regular polygon that cannot be constructed with a ruler and compass.

Category, Speech

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