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The forcible removal of Indigenous children from their families occurred during two periods in Tasmania. The first commenced with the European occupation of Van Dieman's Land (as Tasmania was called until 1856) in 1803 and lasted until the middle of the nineteenth century. The second commenced in the 1930s with the forcible removal of Indigenous children from Cape Barren Island under general…

This is my first Social Justice Report to the federal Parliament as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. I commenced my five year term at the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission on 12 July 2004.

This paper gives a brief overview of the mandatory detention laws currently operating in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It examines their operation and gives some insights into how they have impacted on particular groups including young people and Indigenous Australians. It gives a critique of mandatory detention by reference to Australia's international human rights obligations,…

Discover an educational activity that explores issues of diversity and equality in your favourite novel, film, poem, song or English textbook.

The framework of principles presented in chapter 2 of this Report puts the economic and social development of the traditional owner group at the centre of the native title process. It seeks to build the power and capacity of the traditional owner group to direct and achieve its own economic and social development. It sees the native title system as a tool to assist traditional owners in this…

One of the underlying goals of international and Australian laws relating to children with disabilities is to provide the highest possible level of support and assistance in the least restrictive way. Laws, policies and programs should be designed to ensure that children with disabilities have the opportunity to participate, to the maximum extent possible, in all aspects of the general community.

Complete an education activity (sheet 5) designed to raise awareness of human rights by giving students a set of questions and answers to match correctly.

To celebrate the 60th Anniversary, the Australian Human Rights Commission has put together a seminar series exploring various aspects of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

The landscape of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) is under severe ecological stress. Issues such as salinity, poor water quality, stressed forests, dried wetlands, threatened native species, feral animals and noxious weeds are commonplace within the MDB. The reasons for this dramatic decline in river health are caused by water mismanagement including reversal of natural flow cycles and over…

Most children come to Australia with their parents, but some come alone, either sent by their family for their protection or because they have lost their family in a crisis.

There is some evidence to suggest that within the Australian community, the idea that it is unacceptable for a government to maintain an immigration detention regime which provides for the long-term incarceration of children behind razor wire, is finally the prevailing view. The actions of the government in relaxing their hard line stance on immigration detention, as far as children are concerned…

This is my fifth report to the Australian parliament on the effect of the Native Title Act 1993 on the human rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. In these five years of reporting my main focus has been on the legislative and judicial developments in native title law and the effect of these developments on the recognition of Indigenous rights to land. I have also followed the…