Disability Enterprises Annual meeting
It is my custom to make this acknowledgement at public events because I think recognising Australia's indigenous history is an important element in recognising the truth of our diversity as a people.
It is my custom to make this acknowledgement at public events because I think recognising Australia's indigenous history is an important element in recognising the truth of our diversity as a people.
I will not speak in detail about human rights conventions and disability because this topic is addressed by my co-speaker in this session, Karl Lachwitz. I will say though that international human rights law and human rights debate has not yet acknowledged adequately or sufficiently clearly that people with a disability are part of what the "human" in human rights means. Equally, there has not always been enough attention to human rights dimensions in disability discourse.
I have to admit that two months ago when I took the title " The Disability Discrimination Act and the continuing battle for equal rights for people with a disability" for my paper today I was not attaching great importance to the precise words of that title.
I would like to acknowledge that we are meeting on the traditional country of the Girringun people and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
While Australia may have come in from the cold, the wind has been taken from my sails. The typical role of an international lawyer over the last few years, whether in Australia or in the UK, Europe and North America has been to berate their respective government ministers with numerous failings and to list the necessary reforms to policy. In Australia’s case these have been to persuade the Commonwealth government to:
The globalisation of the world economy, including much improved communication and transportation, has increased flows of people across borders. This includes the movement of children, both with their family and unaccompanied. Separated children crossing borders may be refugees, humanitarian asylum seekers, trafficked girls who will be forced to work as prostitutes, or simply children lost in the aftermath of war. So today, children can literally travel across the world undetected and unprotected. And Australia, as part of this global system, has its share of these children.
Read a statement about the history of the Australian Human Rights Commission, which was presented at the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva in 2003.
Although the first Human Rights Commission was established by federal legislation in 1981, ICESCR was not added to its mandate (unlike the ICCPR). The omission was repeated when the new (current) Commission was established in 1986.
I wish to start today by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we are meeting. On behalf of the Australian Human Rights Commission, I pay my respects 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.
It is now 12 months since the introduction of WorkChoices radically restructured Australia’s industrial relations system. Today, I propose to reflect on the implications of WorkChoices for the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and to outline reforms HREOC believes are necessary to safeguard fairness and equality in the workplace.
When I first entered the law 'benchbooks' were closely guarded, leather bound books into which judges carefully entered notes as a case progressed - usually I thought adverse comments and exclamation marks about one's arguments or less than flattering remarks about one's principal witness. These books seemed to be some kind of secret code to the outcome of cases and never saw the light of day.
On behalf of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (hereafter referred to as the Commission), I welcome the opportunity to make this statement.
On behalf of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, I would like to welcome you to this workshop on the recognition of Aboriginal Customary Law.
Union, University and Schools Club * check upon delivery Introduction Thank you to the Union, University and Schools Club for inviting me to speak and to Dr Mary Forbes for reaching out to. This is a wonderful event. Full of pride, full of celebration—and full of women and supportive men! Let me...
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