News
Race Discrimination
The AHRC and the Racial Discrimination Act: setting the record straight
Federal racial hatred legislation and the complaints-handling processes of the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) are currently the subjects of an inquiry by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. The Committee’s ‘Freedom of speech in Australia’ inquiry, due to report by 28...
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...
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...
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.
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...
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...
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...
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Indigenous Property Rights: Land, Business and Governance
Thank you Galarrwuy for your warm welcome to Gulkula on your country. It is really wonderful to be here on the occasion the 40th anniversary of the Northern Territory Land Rights Act and another successful Garma Festival. I am a Gangulu man from the Dawson Valley in Central Queensland, I acknowledge...
Rights and Freedoms
Jessie Street Trust Annual Lunch 2016
Jessie Street Trust Annual Lunch - I am pleased to join you today to honour the work and annual birthday of Jessie Mary Grey Lillingston Street, a remarkable, and very modern Australian woman. Well before the First World War, she was an advocate for many of the social issues we care about today; equality for women, constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians, world peace and for disarmament.
Disability Rights
Australian Network on Disability Annual National Conference 2016
I would like to thank the Australian Network on Disability for inviting me to speak about the work I have been doing. As many of you would know, I have recently concluded the Willing to Work National Inquiry into Employment Discrimination against Older Australians and Australians with Disability...
Rights and Freedoms
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. While I had settled the subject matter of this lecture, I thought it would be helpful to know what other Hotung Fellows had discussed...
Sex Discrimination
National Press Club speech - Kate Jenkins
‘Accelerating change: gender equality from the household to the workplace’ Kate Jenkins Sex Discrimination Commissioner Australian Human Rights Commission National Press Club 20 April 2016 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY I would like to acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the Traditional Custodians and First...
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.
Sex Discrimination
Australasian Law Reform Agencies Conference
Domestic and family violence and human rights - We all have a right to live our lives free from violence, especially in our relationships, our families and in our homes.
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