Rights, hearts and minds: Towards a national culture of human rights

To be delivered by The Hon Catherine Branson QC
President of the Australian Human Rights Commission and Human Rights Commissioner

Jointly Presented by the Graham F Smith Peace Trust and the Hawke Centre, UniSA

When: Thursday 14th June 2012

Time: 5:30pm for 6:00pm start

Where: Allan Scott Auditorium, UniSA City West campus, rear Hawke Building, 50-55 North Terrace, Adelaide

Tickets $25 from www.artspeacetrust.org/oration

In December 2008, two months after Catherine Branson was appointed President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Australian Government announced the National Human Rights Consultation. The Consultation report documented a widespread call for more robust rights protections in Australia, including the adoption of national human rights legislation. The Australian Government’s response, the Human Rights Framework, deferred the question of legislative protection to a 2014 review, instead establishing greater pre-legislative scrutiny mechanisms, a Joint Committee on Human Rights, and significant human rights education programs.

Where are we now, four years later?

Will the Human Rights Framework improve the protection and promotion of human rights in Australia and what is the role of a national human rights institution in helping to achieve this?

Catherine Branson will argue that, since the release of the Human Rights Framework, Australia has made progress towards improved human rights protection. For some people in Australia, however, protections remain inadequate, while significant institutional challenges remain. The greatest may be the need for wider community awareness – the need to generate a strong national culture of human rights on which existing, and future, mechanisms can be founded; from which all people in Australia may draw strength.