President Speech: 2010 Human Rights Day Oration
We meet today on the lands of the Gadigal peoples of the Eora nation. On behalf of the Australian Human Rights Commission I pay my respect to their elders past and present.
We meet today on the lands of the Gadigal peoples of the Eora nation. On behalf of the Australian Human Rights Commission I pay my respect to their elders past and present.
I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
I speak to you now, not as the Chancellor of this University, but as the President of Australia’s national Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
In keeping with the theme of today's awards, I want to welcome you all here to celebrate our local champions, many of whom are with us as nominees for the 2004 Human Rights Medal and Human Rights Awards.
First of all I'd like to thank you all for coming to here today. It is timely that we meet the day before Mr Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations arrives in Australia. It is from the United Nations that the international obligations we are discussing today are sourced.
I would like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land where we meet today, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.
I would like to acknowledge the Kaurna People, the traditional owners and custodians of the Adelaide Plains and pay my respects to their elders past and present. Thank you Uncle Lewis O’Brien for your warm and generous welcome.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and National Race Discrimination Commissioner, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land where we meet today, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation and I pay my respects to your elders and to the ancestors. On behalf of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission can I welcome everyone here today and thank you for participating in this launch. Thank you to Rob Welsh, the Chairperson of the Metro Local Aboriginal Land Council for welcoming us all to Gadigal country.
I would like to start this afternoon by acknowledging the Noongar people, the traditional owners of the land where we meet today. For those Noongars here – I’d like to congratulate you in the success of your native title claim over this area. Your determination and your ability to work together as a group to pursue this claim is an inspiration to all of us. Indigenous property rights and connection to land are crucial considerations for this presentation because they underpin any discussion about human rights, Indigenous people and land matters.
Thank you to Jon Altman and Boyd Hunter for the opportunity to speak at this important conference. It has provided an excellent opportunity for researchers, bureaucrats and policy-makers to discuss the adequacy of current collection methods for socio-economic data relating to Indigenous people, how such data might be improved and how it might be better utilised.
On 14 May 2002 the Attorney-General tabled the Social Justice Report 2001, my annual review of the exercise of human rights by Indigenous Australians, and the Native Title Report 2001, my annual review of native title developments, in federal Parliament.
Allow me to begin by also acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak here today, World Mental Health Day. I am very pleased that World Mental Health Day this year is dedicated to the theme Human Rights and Mental Health. This theme recognises that mental health issues are human rights issues - a view argued strongly and consistently by our Human Rights Commission for many years.
Imagine a visit to your local market? The noise of trading, the wonderful smells of fresh food, the multitude and variety of colours. It's at ground level, with wide passage ways, and John moves around easily, managing his stall. Rick throws a heavy box of fruit onto his shoulder and, after reading the stall number printed on the box, carries it to that stall. And Elizabeth enters stallholder permit details on her laptop, with an ear-piece in her ear. A society where people with disability are welcomed, and fully included.
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