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Rights and Freedoms

Finalists announced – 2018 Human Rights Law Award

The five finalists for the 2018 Human Rights Awards’ Law Award have been selected, with two from Western Australia competing for the prize. “We have received the highest number of entries for the Law Award since the Human Rights Awards the awards began in 1987,” said Commission President, Professor...

Category, News
Legal

‘Vulnerability and the Law’ - UNSW

University of New South Wales Law Journal Launch of Thematic Issue on ‘Vulnerability and the Law’ Vol 41(3) 2018 27 September 2018 * Check against delivery Acknowledgements I pay my respects to the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and to their elders past and present—as well as to emerging leaders...

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Australia's journey to a National Inquiry into workplace sexual harassment

The following opinion piece by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins appeared in Fairfax papers - SMH, the Age and The Canberra Times On 5 October 2017, I boarded a flight from Britain. By the time I landed in Melbourne, the world had changed. The New York Times story exposing decades of...

Category, Opinion
Sex Discrimination

Fourth National Survey on workplace sexual harassment

The Australian Human Rights Commission has begun the fourth national survey into workplace sexual harassment. The Commission has undertaken regular surveys on workplace sexual harassment since 2002. The Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins said the next iteration of the world-leading survey...

Category, News
Children's Rights

We need to do more to protect our kids online

One unintended consequence of the explosion of digital technology is the proliferation of online child exploitation material – and increased opportunities for child sex offenders to connect with other offenders. This is the central finding of Anti-Slavery Australia’s Behind the Screen: Online Child...

Category, Opinion
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Uluru Convention ‘an historic opportunity for change’

“We gather from the furthest corners of this country to discuss a matter of great importance: how we, as the First Peoples of this country, stand in Australia’s founding legal document – the Constitution.” In her opening remarks to the Uluru National Convention, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait...

Category, Story
Rights and Freedoms

Striking the right balance on free speech

Discover how a former Human Rights Commissioner was asked whether the Racial Discrimination Act impinges on freedom of expression under international law.

Category, Opinion
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Indigenous injustice: so much evidence was ignored

I was shocked but not surprised by the ABC’s Four Corners revelations last Monday night. Incontrovertible CCTV evidence of Aboriginal children subject to demeaning, debilitating and dehumanizing behaviour has galvanised the Australian community and prompted the creation of a Royal Commission with an...

Category, Opinion
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
Rights and Freedoms

Another 'aberration' shows that 18C is the problem and must be changed

State and federal governments should reform laws that make offensive acts unlawful and refocus them on protecting free speech and stopping workplace and public harassment. This week a news story broke about a complaint made under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act by a Queensland University...

Category, Opinion
Legal

Access to justice

Your Honours, distinguished guests: I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land, the Wurrindjeri people of the Kulin nation and pay my respects to their elders, especially to those elders present today. May also thank our host the Hon Justice Mordy Bromberg and the ICJ for inviting me to this...

Category, Speech
LGBTIQ+

Genuine marriage equality is more than overdue

Imagine seeing the words "never married" on your new husband's death certificate. As if the grief of losing your husband while honeymooning wasn't traumatic enough. Marco Bulmer-Rizzi's husband, David, died after falling down stairs at a friend's place in Adelaide. Because South Australia doesn't...

Category, Opinion

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