What’s in it for Women?
Women and Human
Rights Protection in Australia
Venue:
Central Bardon Conference Centre
390 Simpsons Rd,
Bardon QLD
Date: 28 April 2009
Elizabeth Broderick, the federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, and the Queensland Working Women’s Service, invite you to a forum:
What’s in it for Women?
Women and Human
Rights Protection in Australia
Do you work in women’s services? Do you work in women’s housing? Women’s health? Violence against women? Women’s support services? Discrimination issues?
Housing, health, violence, discrimination, work, education and culture are all human rights issues.
The Australian Government is currently undertaking a National Human Rights Consultation which is being conducted by an independent Committee.
The consultation is a unique opportunity for people to have their say about human rights and how they should be protected in Australia. It is critical that the diversity of women’s voices and perspectives are included in this process.
This forum will provide vital information to assist women to participate fully in the Australian Government’s consultation.
The forum will include:
- The opportunity to meet directly with the Consultation Committee in a special roundtable on the human rights issues facing women
- Background on human rights and what they mean for women
- The relevance of human rights to the work of the women’s sector
- Options for improving human rights protections
- What women can gain from better human rights protection in Australia
- Information about how to participate in the National Human Rights
Consultation
Where: Central Bardon Conference Centre
390 Simpsons Rd,
Bardon (map below)
Date: Thursday 26 March, 2009
Time: 9:15 am – 4:30 pm (lunch will be provided)
This event is held with the support of the Queensland Working Women’s Service, Brisbane Rape and Incest Survivors Support Centre, Women’s Health Queensland Wide, Women’s House Shelta, Bahloo Women’s Youth Shelter, Women’s Legal Service and Immigrant Women's Support Service.
Please note that the Australian Human Rights Commission is not undertaking the Consultation or accepting submissions. Information on the independent National Human Rights Consultation Committee is available at www.humanrightsconsultation.gov.au
Speakers
Dr. Betty McLellan
Dr. Betty McLellan is a feminist ethicist, author, psychotherapist and committed activist of long standing. One of four women who comprise the Coalition for a Feminist Agenda, Betty’s focus is deliberately local and global. Working with others to create a solid feminist core in Townsville, she also maintains a radical commitment to global feminist activism. She is the author of three books, one of which has been published in 13 languages. She has a long association with Women's Services and Refugee Services in Townsville is a non-Indigenous member of the Townsville Indigenous Human Rights group. Her fourth book, in progress, focuses on the politics of speech as a feminist ethical issue - Unspeakable: A feminist ethic of speech.
Dr. Sue Harris Rimmer
Susan Harris Rimmer is an academic at the Australian National University and is President of national NGO Australian Lawyers for Human Rights. She has worked with the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the Australian Council for International Development as well as law firm Blake Dawson Waldron and the Parliamentary Library.
Susan was chosen as the winner of the Audre Rapoport Prize for Scholarship on the Human Rights of Women for 2006. She was selected to participate in the 2020 Summit to discuss the Future of Australian Governance and is currently a Board member of UNIFEM Australia.
Dr. Tamara Walsh
Tamara Walsh is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland. As a researcher she is interested in the connection between poverty and the law and has worked on projects covering topics such as vagrancy, homelessness, public space law, social security law and corrections law. She lectures in human rights law, constitutional law and anti-discrimination law.
About the venue
The venue is accessible for people using wheelchairs. If you have any other access requirements to support your full participation or require any other information, please contact Elena Rosenman on 02 9284 9862 as soon as possible.
Parking at the venue is free.
‘What’s in it for women?’
Women
and Human Rights Protection in Australia
Thursday 26 March 2009
9:15am – 4:30
pm
Draft Program
9.15 |
Arrivals, registration, tea and coffee |
9.30 |
Welcome to country |
9:40 |
Welcome from Elizabeth Broderick |
9.50 |
Introductory remarks – is our work human rights work?
Betty McClellan
Tamara Walsh |
10:45 |
MORNING TEA |
11:15 |
Human rights – what’s in it for women?
Sue Harris Rimmer |
12:30 |
LUNCH |
13:15 |
Breakout groups
Participants will break into small groups to work through the Consultation
questions as they relate specifically to the issue they work with. |
14:00 |
Report back |
14:45 |
AFTERNOON TEA |
15:00 |
Women’s Caucus – determining key messages for roundtable
with the Consultation Committee |
15:30 |
Roundtable with the National Consultation Committee |
16:30 |
Summary and close |
