Yesterday Senator Brian Burston (New South Wales) introduced the Australian Human Rights Cmmission Amendment (Preliminary Assessment Process) Bill 2017. The purpose of the Bill is to make a change to the complaints handling procedure of the Australian Human Rights Commission. Before proceeding to a full inquiry and attempt at reconciliation, the Commission will now be required to contact both the complainant and the respondent or respondents, and consider any evidence that they provide for a preliminary assessment of the case. If the complaint is lacking in substance or otherwise unworthy, it can be terminated at that point. Senator Burston contended that the work of the Commission is seriously impeded by cases involving alternative facts and unreliable evidence, adding unnecessarily to its workload, and involving people falsely accused of discrimination in serious damage to their reputations and causing them untold expense.

For more detail see:

http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2F272a29a0-c557-4988-bcb8-227d6f4fffc8%2F0113%22

A copy of the article (in the PDF format) is attached below:

2017-01-19 Opinion Piece for the The Australian re reform of AHRC

The University of Chile School of Law and the Center for Human Rights hosted the 7th IHREC on 12-15 December 2016.     

The IHREC is an international event that has taken place in Australia, South Africa, Poland, Taiwan, the United States and The Netherlands. This time the conference was held for the first time in Latin America and the 2017 conference will be held in Canada.

The 7th IHREC was bi-lingual(in Spanish and English) and brought together some 250 experts, scholars and concerned individuals from different countries.

The summary of the conference may be viewed 2017-01-18 Record of the VII IHREC The papers and presentations from the panels are available on http://ihrec2016.org/en in the section with the program. As you go to the details of each panel, the presenter names are links to their papers. If you wish to download, for example, the papers from Panel 1, you go to this link http://ihrec2016.org/en/opalsingleevent-session/panel-1-human-rights-education-hre-in-formal-education-systems-part-1-challenges-and-analysis/ and select the papers you want to download. The final publication will be available in March 2017.

Dr Ozdowski, Foundation Convenor & Series Coordinator, International Human Rights Education Conferences, opened the conference (see  2016-12-12 7TH IHRE OPENING REMARKS BY SEV OZDOWSKI – speaking notes 2) delivered a paper on Australian Multiculturalism (see 2016-12-12 7IHREC CHILE – MULTICULTURALISM PAPER[1] ) and chaired the closing panel. Sev also presented to the Executive Director of the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos a coper dove given him by political prisoners in August 1986 when he was visiting Chilean prisons on a human rights mission to Latin American countries.

For more information see: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/equity_diversity/equity_and_diversity/conferences/international_human_rights_education_conferences

Below there are few photographs from the 7 th IHREC.

It was a pleasure to take part with Associate Professor Christine Inglis and Leticia Anderson at the Sydney University Election Nerds Show about multicultural Australia.  Thank you to Dr Peter John Chen of the Department of Government in International Relations for organising it.

The Multiculturalism Show is available online and via itunes – http://www.electionnerds.info/?p=733 – feel free to share this link on your social media sites.

On 8 November 2016, pursuant to section 7(c) of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011, the Attorney-General referred to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights the following matters for inquiry and report:

• whether the operation of Part IIA of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) (including sections 18C and 18D) impose unreasonable restrictions on freedom of speech; and
• whether the complaints-handling procedures of the Australian Human Rights Commission should be reformed.

My submission to the parliamentary inquiry into freedom of speech in Australia has been published on the inquiry website of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights.

To view it, please refer to the list of submissions on the inquiry website at:

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Human_Rights_inquiries/FreedomspeechAustralia/Submissions.

On 10 October 2016, to commemorate the fifties anniversary of Australia becoming a signatory to one of the world’s most profound declarations on human rights — the United Nations’ International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull moved a motion in Parliament to reaffirm Australia’s commitment to equality of rights for all and non-discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, creed or origin. The motion was supported by the Leader of the opposition and accepted by acclamation.

The motion stated:

1. Reaffirms its commitment to the right of all Australians to enjoy equal rights and be treated with equal respect regardless of race, colour, creed or origin;
2. Reaffirms its commitment to maintaining an immigration policy wholly non-discriminatory on grounds of race, colour, creed or origin;
3. Reaffirms its commitment to the process of reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, in the context of redressing their profound social and economic disadvantage;
4. Reaffirms its commitment to maintaining Australia as a culturally diverse, tolerant and open society, united by an overriding commitment to our nation, and its democratic institutions and values; and
5. Denounces racial intolerance in any form as incompatible with the kind of society we are and want to be.

The Prime Minister’s speech could be read on: https://www.pm.gov.au/media/2016-10-10/racial-tolerance-motion-address-parliament

On 16 August 2016 in the afternoon (Polish time) I gave an interview about the situation in Nauru to Ms Agnieszce Lichnerowicz, journalist working in Warsaw for radio TOK FM – program SWIATOPODGLAD.
The interview is titled “Incydenty w obozie dla uchodzcow na wyspie Nauru” and could be found on page 16 in the Radio TOK FM archives in Radio at:  http:/audycje.tokfm.pl/odcinek/40408

The issue of immigration and current refugee refugee crisis are of major interest to many Europeans. Attached is an interview Dr Ozdowski gave recently to Mr Marek Ostrowski, Editor in Chief of Polish Weekly Magazine “Polityka”, about Australian immigration system, refugee intake and multiculturalism.

Sev_Ozdowski_wywiad