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Children's Rights

Is jail the answer for Australian kids?

This year around 900 children and young people will spend Christmas in jail. More than 5 per cent of this population are between 10 and 12 years old and 74 per cent of this age group are Indigenous. Most have been charged or convicted with petty crimes, like graffiti, vandalism, shop lifting or fare...

Category, Opinion
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Report launched today

Australian Human Rights Commission President Gillian Triggs and Deputy Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Robynne Quiggin today launch the Social Justice and Native Title Report 2016. The document is a state-of-the-nation report on the social justice and native title...

Category, News
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Listen to us: we know what we need

Decades of reports and inquiries have largely echoed what Indigenous leaders have long asked for: we want Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to be at the heart of any reform agenda involving our people, says Robynne Quiggin. The 2016 Social Justice and Native Title Report details the...

Category, Opinion
Children's Rights

Launch of Children's Rights Report 2016

Introduction Good morning everyone. I want to begin by speaking about an artwork submitted by a young person detained in a youth justice centre. This was sent to me as an entry to an art competition I ran for children and young people in youth justice centres this year. I asked them to show me how...

Category, Speech
LGBTIQ+

World AIDS Day breakfast: Hobart

Terrace Room, Best Western Hobart, 156 Bathurst St, Hobart Speaking notes CHECK AGAINST DEIVERY Acknowledgements: Muwinina [pron: ‘mou wee nee nar’] people TasCAHRD (who invited me to speak) Elders in the LGBTI community. Introduction 15 years ago, when I was an idealistic law student with lots of...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Access and equity: human rights in practice

Speech to SydWest Multicultural Services AGM Edward Santow – speaking notes – CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Acknowledgements: the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land, the Darug people Dr Chandrika Subramaniyan (Chair, SydWest Multicultural Services) Elfa Moraitakis (CEO, SydWest) Introduction...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Human rights in action: the role of social workers in detention

Speech to Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) Queensland State Social Work Conference University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus – Lecture Theatre Room 234, Parnell Building Check against delivery Acknowledgements: the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land, the Turrbal and Jagera...

Category, Speech
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
LGBTIQ+

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Transgender Day of Remembrance Harmony Park, Goulburn St, Surry Hills Edward Santow, Human Rights Commissioner Check against delivery Acknowledgements Gadigal people of the Eora Nation Elders in the trans community, past and present. In particular, those people who have been victims of hate crimes...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

National Faith and Civil Marriage Equality Forum

National Faith and Civil Marriage Equality Forum Hosted by Australians 4 Equality Main Committee Room, Parliament House, Canberra Edward Santow, Human Rights Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission Check against Delivery Introduction My late father used to talk about our family’s motley...

Category, Speech
Children's Rights

Children's Week Address: Don't be scared - it's just information!

Introduction I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Arrernte people, and pay my respects to elders past, present and future. I would also like to thank Geraldine for the Welcome to Country, and to Tiara for her fabulous emceeing here tonight...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Peering through human rights-tinted glasses

Annual Lecture, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law. Given at the State Library of Victoria on 7 October 2016. This year, we celebrate (or mourn, according to your perspective) the 60th anniversary of the first computer to defeat a human in chess. It occurred, predictably enough, in Los Alomos, and...

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

The NDIS: delivering results, delivering equality and even delivering your coffee

Getting a morning coffee on the way to work is a ritual many of us take for granted.   Not Jeremy, who is a young man with a communication disability.  The thought of not only being able to order coffee, but run a business, was a pipe dream.  Until the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)...

Category, Opinion
Children's Rights

A life free from violence and fear: a child’s right

2016 International Congress on Child Abuse and Neglect Held by the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect in Calgary, Canada Introduction Good afternoon. It’s a pleasure to be here in Calgary today to speak about the work I have done as Australia’s first National...

Category, Speech

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