Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Anglicare, Tasmania Annual Social Justice Lecture 22 August, 2007 TOM CALMA Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner National Race Discrimination Commissioner Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and Acting Race Discrimination Commissioner, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Ending violence in Indigenous communities Forum
Disability Rights
I follow this custom wherever I go to speak in public. I think recognising Australia ' s indigenous peoples and their prior ownership of this land in this way is more than just good manners. It is an important part of recognising our diversity as a nation.
Commission – General
Since the terrorist attacks on September 11 2001, Governments around the world have created a raft of new counter-terrorism laws. In Australia alone, over 40 new laws have created new criminal offences, new detention and questioning powers for police and security apparatus, new powers for the Attorney-General to proscribe terrorist organisations, new ways to control people’s movement and activities without criminal convictions, and new investigative powers for police and security agencies.
Rights and Freedoms
I'm very pleased to be speaking to you today. I'm especially encouraged that so many young people have put aside a weekend to think about, and talk about, human rights.
Rights and Freedoms
I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand and by so doing remind ourselves that Australia’s cultural traditions stretch back many thousands of years.
Commission – General
This paper deals with two aspects of the bill: the preventative detention orders and the new sedition offence. It does not touch on the problematic control orders.
Commission – General
I would like to acknowledge the Kaurna peoples, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
Commission – General
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world
Commission – General
To be honest, this is a rare occasion for me. Much of my career has been spent in the monastic cells of academic institutions teaching the young about different legal systems; their origins and growth, their strengths and weaknesses. Your world - the world of business and industry, finances, profit and loss, sales and marketing - is largely foreign to me in a practical sense.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Where: Australian College of Educators (the Boardroom) James Darling House 42 Geils Court Deakin, Canberra When: Saturday May 17 Time: 11.00am for 11.30am (see appendix 1)
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
I would also like to thank the conference organisers for two things: – firstly for inviting me to present today, and secondly, for developing a conference on such a critical but very marginalised theme on the national stage – Indigenous policy development – and how we can all do it better.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
This morning about 20,000 Australians woke up in a prison cell. What will their day bring? Most of you know far more about that than I do and that is precisely why we have called upon your expertise for today's workshop.
Disability Rights
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.
Race Discrimination
Centuries ago a great many of the inhabitants of this beautiful island were wiped out by colonization and its aftermath. The disappearance of so many is a solemn reminder of the injustice done to the first peoples of this land. Their violent absence is a presence that calls for us to reflect on injustices, suffering and reconciliation in the broadest sense. To them I pay my respects.
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