Human Rights: Universal and Inalienable
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.
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.
In the contemporary world, and particularly amongst developed economies, many of us believed that the culture of civil liberties, freedoms and non-discrimination are reasonably well established and these precepts have clear links to innovation, creativity and the broader concepts of economic productivity and a well functioning civil society. Indeed, I believe that many of us had come to accept and expect this to be the situation, and that conferences like the one we attend here today could be built on this very premise.
Forty eight years ago this Tuesday, on December 10 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration was a response to the trauma that many of the worlds nations had experienced in World War II. The trauma was especially strong among the nations of Europe, particularly because of the Holocaust, but it was also evident in East Asia, South Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific.
First, may I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Ngunnawal people, and pay my respects to their elders, both past and present.
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
I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Noongar people, the traditional owners of the land where we meet today, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
I begin by acknowledging the Kaurna people, the traditional owners of the land where we meet today and pay my respects to their elders. I would also like to thank the Department for the Premier and Cabinet and, in particular, Sonia Waters of the Social Inclusion unit for inviting me to speak to you today and I acknowledge my fellow speakers April and Nerida.
Both are written by Dr William Jonas, who is here today. As you would know he is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner.
Over the last four years the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (the Commission) has played a key role in raising community awareness about the human rights Australians with a mental illness. The Commission, through its public inquiry process, brought into national focus how, amongst other things, people affected by mental illness frequently faced discrimination and stigmatisation based on ignorance, fear and inaccurate stereotypes.
On 30 March 2007 I was waxing lyrical to my computer screen in Sydney. My words were not quite the same, but they had equal passion and determination. At 1.40 a.m. on that Saturday morning Sydney time, I was having a few glasses of wine and watching Australia line up with 80 other countries at the United Nations (UN) in New York, to sign that same Convention on the first day it was open for signature—via podcast to my computer screen. It was Friday New York time.
Mr Johnathon Ridnell, ABC Regional Radio Dr Maureen Rogers, Research Fellow, Centre for Sustainable Regional Communities Fellow speakers Ladies and gentlemen
I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of this land, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and to pay my respects to their elders both past and present.
Firstly, HREOC is charged with: "promoting an understanding and acceptance of human rights in Australia". Young people obviously form a very, very important part of that task.
Keynote presentation delivered at the 8th National Conference of the Association for the Welfare of Child Health (AWCH) - "Children on the margin: addressing the health care needs of marginalised children and young people", 11 October 2001, Dr Sev Ozdowski
I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Ngunnawal peoples, and pay my respect to their elders past and present.
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