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Commission – General

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I also thank Professor Barry Brook for his survey of the latest scientific assessments and forecasts on the impact of climate change on our planet. They are indeed alarming. The fact of climate change, and the rate of change, has become all too clear, even if there are still sceptics that wish to debate the causes. Our title reference to “Catastrophic Impacts” seems fully justified.

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Human Rights in the Asia Pacific Region

It is my pleasure to report to you today on the outcome of deliberations of the Working Group on Human Rights Education. This working group was relatively small in size but very diverse and robust in its deliberations. It consisted of representatives of Arabic countries, including the host country Qatar as well as Japan, the Philippines and Australia.

Category, Speech
Commission – General

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I feel very honoured to have been invited to contribute to this symposium. As a theme for today's discussion, I have chosen the notions of regionalisation and responsibility within Asia and the Pacific. I believe that the ability to accept responsibility for our neighbourhood, and to generate cooperative regional dialogues and actions to fulfill that responsibility will be the key to meeting the challenges and opportunities human rights will face in the new century.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

NAIDOC Week Oration to Senior NSW Police

Firstly, I’d like to begin by paying my respects to the Gadigal peoples of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land where we gather today. I pay my respects to your elders, to the ancestors and to those who have come before us.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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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

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

Opportunity knocks

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.

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Woman and savings

1. " ... there are 106,000 poor single women over 65 as compared with 40,000 men in this group in 2000" Senate Community Affairs References Committee A Hand up not a hand out: Renewing the fight against poverty: Report on poverty and financial hardship, Commonwealth of Australia 2004, p211. 2. C Brown- Conference Paper- Retirement Income Modeling Task Force- Joint project Treasury , Dept Finance and Dept Social Security, 1997 3. www.gradsonline.edu.au:- 2003 Graduate Destination Survey of graduates who completed their courses in 2002. 4.

Category, Speech
Commission – General

President Speech: ‘Women as Agents of Change’: Balancing the scales

I would like to begin by also acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. I pay my respects to their elders past and present. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the inspirational work of so many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who have been agents of change, be they barristers, lawyers, judges, litigants or community advocates.

Category, Speech
Commission – General

Launch of the Supreme Court Equal Treatment Benchbook

When I first entered the law 'benchbooks' were closely guarded, leather bound books into which judges carefully entered notes as a case progressed - usually I thought adverse comments and exclamation marks about one's arguments or less than flattering remarks about one's principal witness. These books seemed to be some kind of secret code to the outcome of cases and never saw the light of day.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

A human rights agenda for the Northern Territory (2008)

I begin by paying my respects to the Larrakia peoples, the traditional owners of the land where we gather today. I pay my respects to your elders, to the ancestors and to those who have come before us.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Role of social workers as human rights workers with Indigenous people

Thank you to the Australian Catholic University for inviting me to speak today. As you no doubt know, I am a social worker by training , graduating in 1978, so it is wonderful to have an opportunity to address you. It is great to see so many upcoming social workers here today, as well as a number of you who have a wealth of experience and do so much good in our communities. It’s a tough job at the coal face. One that you often do in difficult circumstances, with little support, not to mention little money!

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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On 14 May 2002 the Attorney-General tabled the Social Justice Report 2001, my annual review of the exercise of human rights by Indigenous Australians, and the Native Title Report 2001, my annual review of native title developments, in federal Parliament.

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

Hastings: Finding Your Own Shape

I am delighted to have been invited to speak to you tonight on the Eve of International Women's Day, as so many of you are at the eve of being women yourselves, whether international or not. I can tell you, from my own experience, that being a woman kind of creeps up on you: one minute you're a girl, or an adolescent (whatever that may really be), and the next you are a woman!

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

“Child Migrants and Human Rights in our Time”: Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM (2005)

I should add, at this point, that my work over the past few years and my inquiry on children in immigration detention (CIDI), in Australia, the report of which "A last resort?" was tabled in the Australian Federal parliament in May of 2004, has made me even more keenly aware of the fragility of child asylum seekers. But more on that later!

Category, Speech

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