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LGBTIQ+

I want to hold your hand: LGBTI people have some surprisingly modest aspirations

Visibility remains one of the greatest challenges in tackling the legacy of state-sanctioned discrimination against people on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status. In the past 30 years we’ve made great strides in ensuring people are treated equally before the law...

Category, Opinion
Race Discrimination

Forty years of the Racial Discrimination Act

In October 1975, at a ceremony for the proclamation of the Racial Discrimination Act, then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam described the legislation as ‘a historic measure’, which aimed to ‘entrench new attitudes of tolerance and understanding in the hearts and minds of the people’.(1) The Act was...

Category, Opinion
Sex Discrimination

Sydney Girls High School – Annual Presentation Day

It is indeed a privilege to be invited to speak to you all at such an important time in many of your lives. In my job I get the opportunity to see and be with people of all walks of life, across all parts of Australia. And it is wonderful to be able to include today in my experiences – it is giving the chance to be with an incredibly talented group of young women, who I hope to see in leadership and decision-making positions across Australia in the future – it is incredibly inspiring.

Category, Speech
Children's Rights

National Kidsafe Day 2014: Challenging Play - Risk It!

Megan Mitchell National Children's Commissioner Australian Human Rights Commission Introduction to National Kidsafe Day 2014 Good morning everyone and thankyou Dr Julie Brown for the introduction. Thank you to Kathleen Clapham for the acknowledgement to country this morning. I would also like to...

Category, Speech
LGBTIQ+

Launch of the Safe Schools Coalition NSW

Photo: Anne Stuart (Director Planning, Education & International Program, Family Planning NSW), Tim Wilson (Australian Human Rights Commissioner), Laura Blundell (Same Difference panel speaker), Jan Owen (CEO, Foundation for Young Australians) & Ann Brassil (CEO, Family Planning NSW) Credit: Robert...

Category, Speech

Changing Hearts, Changing Minds

We all share a responsibility to lead cultural change for inclusion of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex. Building on the previous work of the Commission, I’ll be using my term as Human Rights Commissioner to ensure these issues are given national attention. It was an honour to be a keynote speaker at the Human Rights Forum of the Asia Pacific Outgames in Darwin.

Category, Speech
Children's Rights

The right to a full life: survival and healthy development for all children

Megan Mitchell National Children’s Commissioner Australian Human Rights Commission Grand Rounds Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick Wednesday 9 October 2013 Click to view slides (Powerpoint) [15 MB] Acknowledgments Slide 1 Thank you Aunty Barbara Keeley Simms for your heartfelt and thought provoking...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Social Inclusion and Human Rights in Australia

Chain Reaction Foundation Breakfast Cafe KPMG Level 15, 10 Shelley Street, Sydney Tuesday 20 August 2013 7:45am (Check against delivery) Social Inclusion and Human Rights in Australia I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, the Traditional Owners of the land upon which we...

Category, Speech
Race Discrimination

Mental Health Impacts of Racial Discrimination in Victoria

Good afternoon and thank you for being here for the launch of the Mental Health Impacts of Racial Discrimination in Victorian Aboriginal Communities Report. And I am proud to be launching this Report on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, and I pay my respect to elders both past and present.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Combating Racism in Sport panel discussion (2011)

I would like to acknowledge the initiative of the Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations and the AFL in coordinating this session. I’d further like to thank the Head of Mission, Mr Peter Woollcott for the invitation to participate in today’s discussion which focuses on racism and sport in Australia.

Category, Speech

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