Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Tom Calma, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, ‘The Right to Health of Indigenous Australians’ seminar, University of Melbourne Law School, 16 March 2006.
Disability Rights
I would like to acknowledge the Ngunnawal People , the traditional owners of the land on which we stand, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
Disability Rights
Over the past year, the Human Rights Commission has enjoyed a very productive relationship with Deafness Forum and other groups, including the Australian Association of the Deaf, and Media Access Australia . We've worked on a number of projects: TV, DVD and Cinema captioning, as well as the UN Convention on the Rights of people with Disability.
Disability Rights
A picture paints a thousand words, but most Australians gave up watching silent movies in the first half of the last century. However, for 1.7 million Australians who are Deaf or hearing impaired this is a historic day. For them it marks the beginning of access to the soundtracks of movies - access that most of us have enjoyed for all of our lives.
Legal
I am very pleased to be here talking about Human Rights and Climate Change in the first of HREOC’s seminar series celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (the ‘Declaration’).1
Rights and Freedoms
Thank you for inviting me to speak today. It is almost a year since I spoke about the Human Rights Commission's Bush Talks consultations at the 1999 national conference of the Australian Association of Rural Nurses in Adelaide. I spoke in particular about some of the health concerns raised in the consultations. Today I would like to look beyond Bush Talks in more detail at some of the areas of particular concern which were raised and then explain some of the Commission's continuing work on human rights in rural Australia.
Commission – General
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.
Commission – General
It is a great pleasure to be speaking today with Judge Clifford Wallace. I had the pleasure of meeting him on several occasions at Judges' conferences in the Pacific. I was very sorry to miss him when he was in Adelaide in 2003.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
I begin by paying my respects to the Gadigal peoples of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land where we gather today. pay my respects to your elders, to the ancestors and to those who have come before us. And thank you, Allen Madden, for your generous welcome to country for all of us.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Thank you for the opportunity to speak here this morning. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners, the Turrbal people on whose land we are on today.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Throughout many western democracies contemporary beliefs about the role of the media are directly shaped by enlightenment ideals and the struggle against state despotism. Although somewhat tarnished, these ideals continue to inspire resistance to oppression, and sustain battles for freedom of conscience, speech, and individual liberty, for political self determination and democratisation.
Disability Rights
In the United States, 54 years ago today, Rosa Parks was arrested. Rosa Parks was a black woman, arrested for refusing to sit at the back of a bus. It's appalling to think this occurred. It's even more appalling that 54 years later in Australia, many people with disability can't even get on the bus.
Disability Rights
Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. It is honour to be here today to help recognise the people who try to make a difference to some of the most vulnerable and marginalised people in our community.
Commission – General
This paper addresses one of the Forum themes: ‘Security and Human Rights’. Since 11 September 2001 governments around the world have responded to the threat of terrorism with tough measures to protect the lives and security of their communities – to protect their fundamental human rights. New security measures give government authorities unprecedented powers, which can seriously infringe the basic human rights of those against whom the powers are exercised.
Rights and Freedoms
I would like to open today by reading you part of an e-mail that a work colleague of mine received recently from a young Australian woman in her early twenties, who recently completed her Bachelor of Communications degree from UTS in Sydney. As it happens she also holds Polish citizenship and is currently visiting her grandparents in Warsaw.
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