Search results

The Australian Early Childhood Association (AECA) is a national non-government, non-profit advocacy organisation that speaks out on behalf of all young children from birth to eight years. It stands as the voice for children and aims to ensure that the best interests of children are always at the forefront of decision making. Members include childcare services, schools, peak early childhood…

2.1 Introduction [1] Successive Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioners (Social Justice Commissioners) have always shown constant leadership and advocacy in reporting on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights to our lands and waters in the 19 Native Title Reports written between 1994 and 2012. [2] These Reports consistently show that social justice…

Read through the following quotes. These are things that asylum seeker children told the Australian Human Rights Commission about their time in Australian immigration detention centres.

Pursuant to section 11(1)(f)(ii) of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986 (Cth), I attach a report of my inquiry into a complaint against the Commonwealth of Australia. I have found that the respondent failed to provide the complainant with a safe place of detention whilst she was detained at the Curtin Immigration Reception and Processing Centre and that such failure…

This submission aims to highlight a number of issues for children in immigration detention arising from the Department of Human Services' (DHS) involvement in child protection, health service provision to children and their families, settlement support and care of unattached minors.

This submission makes brief comment on the education of children in detention. It provides a more complete picture of the education services offered to these children by the Department of Education, Training and Employment in South Australia (hereafter the department) after they have been processed as refugees and released into the community. Note is also made of a group of children who have been…

Improving the health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is a longstanding challenge for governments in Australia. While there have been improvements made in some areas since the 1970s (notably in reducing high rates of infant mortality1) overall progress has been slow and inconsistent. The inequality gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other…

Improving the health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is a longstanding challenge for governments in Australia. While there have been improvements made in some areas since the 1970s (notably in reducing high rates of infant mortality1) overall progress has been slow and inconsistent. The inequality gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other…

Media Pack Index | Media Release | Launch Speech by Pru Goward | Speech by Nareen Young | Case Studies Fact Sheets: Key Findings | The Complaints Process | Legal Definition of Sexual Harassment | Cost to Employers

Although it is not possible to precisely specify all the circumstance that lead people to arrive in Australia through people smuggling routes, there can be no doubt that they undertake perilous journeys which put their lives and that of accompanying family members at risk. Given the very high rates of approval for those who have sought asylum in Australia through these routes, it is reasonable to…

This provides an overview of the main events leading up to the introduction of the new arrangements for the administration of Indigenous affairs on 1 July 2004, as well as the key events which have occurred since that time to implement the new arrangements. For further detail on each of the events please refer to Appendix One.

To those of you who have been following this Inquiry closely, it may be unclear as to why this hearing is taking place as I had said in December 2002 that those would be the last of the Inquiry's hearings. I will therefore briefly set out the history and methodology of the Inquiry to this point which will take us to why we are here today. I will then set out what steps remain to be completed…

(1) For the purpose of the performance of its functions, the Commission may make an examination or hold an inquiry in such manner as it thinks fit and, in informing itself in the course of an examination or inquiry, is not bound by the rules of evidence.

The purpose of this chapter is to explain the relevance of international human rights law to children in Australia's immigration detention centres and to provide a quick reference point on the fundamental human rights principles that have influenced the approach of this Inquiry. This chapter also explains the role of United Nations (UN) guidelines in the Inquiry's analysis of Australia's human…

I felt so bad staying in a place surrounded by razor fence. I can’t understand and I always asked ‘Why did they take me here?’ … It was scary.