Australian Human Rights Commission
e-bulletin
March 2011
Welcome
Welcome to the March issue of the Australian Human Rights Commission's monthly e-bulletin, where we will keep you up-to-date with our latest programs, projects and news.
Please forward to friends and colleagues who have an interest in human rights and social justice issues.
In this e-bulletin
- People power helps to close the gap in Indigenous life expectancy
- Thérèse Rein Receives Her Medal
- New conciliation register available
- See below for more...
People power helps to close the gap in Indigenous life expectancy
 |
Dr Tom Calma and Commissioner Mick Gooda at the National Press Club |
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and Co-Chair of the Close the Gap Campaign, Mick Gooda, addressed the National Press Club this month to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the people-powered Indigenous Health Campaign.
Along with Campaign Co-Chair Dr Tom Calma, Commissioner Gooda explained how the campaign had successfully used people power to lay the foundation for achieving Indigenous life expectancy equality within a generation.
“Since 2006, 150,000 Australians have formally pledged their support for achieving Indigenous health equality and almost every government and opposition party has signed the historic Close the Gap statement of Intent,” Commissioner Gooda said.
“The first ever Minister for Indigenous Health has been appointed and we have seen almost $5 billion of ‘closing the gap’ branded programs from Australian governments.
“The next crucial chapter is the development of a national plan to close the health and life expectancy gap," he said.
Commissioner Gooda said Indigenous Australians die, on average, between 10 and 17 years younger than other Australians.
He said a baby born today to an Indigenous mother is still between two and three times more likely to die before its fourth birthday than a child born to a non-Indigenous Australian mother.
Thérèse Rein Receives Her Medal
 |
Thérèse Rein accepts the 2010 Human Rights Medal from Commission President Catherine Branson QC |
Thérèse Rein formally received her 2010 Human Rights Medal earlier this month.
Due to overseas commitments, Ms Rein was unable to accept the Medal when she was announced as the winner in December.
Commission President Catherine Branson QC said the Medal recognised the broad contribution Ms Rein had made to human rights over many years.
"Your passion in the area of children's rights, and the rights of people who are homeless, are well-known, and contributed to this award. But the primary reason which persuaded the judges to select you was your long-term commitment to advancing the rights of people with disability, both in Australia and overseas," Ms Branson told Ms Rein.
"It is therefore very appropriate that you should receive your medal at the next meeting of the livable housing design dialogue, as you initiated and encouraged this dialogue during your time as the wife of our Prime Minister."
The Livable Housing Design dialogue is a meeting of industry, disability and government representatives, which - in July last year - launched a voluntary strategy to ensure that - by 2020 - all new houses in Australia would be built to meet the access needs of Australians with disability.
Conciliation register updated
 |
A conciliation in action |
The Commission’s conciliation register has been updated with a further set of de-identified conciliations now available online.
The conciliation register aims to help parties prepare for conciliation and to provide a broader understanding of the Commission’s conciliation work.
New cases will be added to the register at regular intervals.
“The Complaint Handling Unit has compiled this register from real-life complaints that have been conciliated by Commission conciliators to increase understanding of the sort of complaints we receive at the Commission and how they can be resolved through conciliation,” Commission President Catherine Branson said.
“We hope that making this information easily available online will help people to better understand what their rights and responsibilities are.”
The Conciliation register can be found at www.humanrights.gov.au/complaints_information/register/index.html
Recent media releases
- Bullying: stand up and take action safely (18 March 2011)
- Time to rethink our mandatory detention system (17 March 2011)
- Commission welcomes moves to improve complementary protection as a good first step (24 February 2011)
Recent speeches
- People power is a force in this country: Celebrating the 5th anniversary of the Close the Gap Campaign for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Equality
Delivered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Mick Gooda and Dr Tom Calma, National Press Club, Canberra, 10 March 2011
Recent podcasts
Episode 4 2011 - Electronic voting – (7 March 2011) - Tim Noonan and Judy Birkenhead
At least 300,000 Australians, until recently, have not had an independent secret ballot. These are people who are blind or have low vision, or who, for other reasons, cannot complete a ballot paper. In recent years, however, this has started to change. In this instalment of PodRights, Disability and Race Discrimination Commissioner, Graeme Innes, talks to election officials, Tim Noonan and Judy Birkenhead about new developments and how they are being used in the upcoming NSW election.
Episode 3 2011 - Mainstreaming gender equality – (28 February 2011) - Carolyn Hannon
Commissioner Innes talks to Associate Professor Carolyn Hannon from the University of Lund in Sweden about the concept of mainstreaming gender equality. A former Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women at the United Nations, Carolyn grew up in Australia before moving to Sweden where she lives and has raised a family. In this instalment of PodRights, Carolyn discusses how gender equality means more than just dealing with employment issues and explains why mainstreaming of gender equality needs to take place, not only across the UN, but in nations around the world.
Go to www.humanrights.gov.au/podcasts for audios and transcripts of all Pod Rights.
Get involved - upcoming events
- March 21: Harmony Day
- May 26: National sorry day
- April 18: Equal Rights for People with a Disability
For the latest media releases, speeches, opinion pieces, go to the media centre on the Commission’s website at: www.humanrights.gov.au/about/media/
