Human Rights 2010

The Annual Castan Centre for Human Rights Law Conference

Friday 16 July 2010
State Library of Victoria

Session 1: 9.15 am - 10:30 am
The changing face of Australian human rights laws

Dr Helen Szoke
Commissioner of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission

'The right to equality and the right to freedom of religion - not absolutes!'
Audio recording available here
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Abstract: Victoria in the past twelve months has seen much public debate about religious freedom and how proposed amendments to the Equal Opportunity Act will impact on religious freedom.  This debate, which also gained enormous attention during the National Human Rights Consultations, has been set up as an either or situation, which has resulted in the polarisation of views, often not based on clear information.  A compromise has been proposed in the amendments to the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act, and these changes and their implications will form the basis of this presentation.

Bio: Helen Szoke is the Commissioner with the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.  She has held this position since 1^st October 2009.  Previously she was the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Conciliator for the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, a position she held since December 2004.                     

She has previously held positions relating to management, community development, organizational development and regulation in the education and health sectors.

Helen is currently a Director of the Adult Migrant Education Services, and a Board Member of Multicultural Arts Victoria.   She has held various other statutory and Directors positions including the National Health and Medical Research Licensing Committee, the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Key Centre for Women’s Health, a Director with Women’s Health Victoria and various community agencies.  She also served one term as a local city councilor.

Mr Phil Lynch
Executive Director of the Human Rights Law Resource Centre

'Charters of Rights in Australia: Recent developments and prospects'
Audio recording available here
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Abstract: This presentation will consider recent developments and prospects in the legislative and judicial protection of human rights in Australia.  It will consider recent case law and evidence from Victoria and the ACT and discuss implementation of the recommendations of the National Human Rights Consultation.

Bio: Mr Phil Lynch is Director and Principal Solicitor of the Human Rights Law Resource Centre.  The Centre is a leading national community legal centre which promotes and protects human rights through strategic litigation, policy advocacy and capacity building.  Phil was previously the founding Coordinator of the PILCH Homeless Persons’ Legal Clinic in Melbourne which, in 2005, was conferred with the Australian Human Rights Law Award.  Phil is a Director of the Alternative Law Journal, an appointee to the Federal Government’s Human Rights Grants Scheme Expert Panel and a member of the Victorian Attorney-General’s Human Rights Leadership Forum.

Session 2: 11.00 am - 12.15 pm
Current human rights issues in Australia

Associate Professor Peter van Onselen
Contributing Editor The Australian and Faculty of Education and Arts, Edith Cowan University

'The race to the bottom: Understanding why our political leaders won't lead on refugee debates'
Audio recording available here
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Abstract: Associate Professor van Onselen will speak on understanding why our political leaders won't lead on refugee debates.

Bio: Dr Peter van Onselen is Contributing Editor at The Australian newspaper and an Associate Professor in politics and government at Edith Cowan University. He also hosts two weekly political programs on Sky News - The Contrarians on Fridays and Saturday Agenda - and writes a weekly column for the News Ltd Sunday papers. The author or editor of three books and dozens of scholarly articles, including the bestselling book John Winston Howard: The Biography (rated by The Wall Street Journal Asia as the best biography of 2007), Dr van Onselen was awarded a first class honours degree in political science and a masters in policy studies, both from UNSW, and a PhD, also in political science, from UWA. He is married with two daughters.

Dr Adiva Sifris
Law Faculty, Monash University

'Say 'YES' to same sex marriage in Australia' 
Audio recording available here
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Abstract: Over the past decade same sex unions have received increased legal recognition.  In 2008 the Commonwealth government passed a raft of legislation amending 84 pieces of legislation which discriminated against same-sex couples. Notably absent from these reforms was legislation amending the Marriage Act 1961 (Cth). The federal government has since indicated that it supports a national registration scheme for domestic couples irrespective of gender.  In addition some States, for example Victoria, have passed legislation allowing same-sex couples to register their relationships. 

This paper discusses the various options available to same sex couples from the relationship recognition menu; these include: marriage, civil union and registration. It concludes that in Australia all forms of relationship recognition that are available to opposite sex couples must also be accessible to same sex couples. The establishment of a national registration scheme is rejected and it is argued that any form of relationship recognition short of marriage will only serve to perpetuate discrimination against same sex couples.

Bio: Dr Adiva Sifris is a senior lecturer at Monash University Law School.  Prior to entering academia she practiced exclusively in the area of Family Law.  She is recognised as an expert in the area of Family Law with a particular interest in same-sex relationships and same-sex parenting.  Adiva has delivered numerous conferences papers and published widely in this area.  She has recently authored a book ‘Children and the Lesbian “Homo-nuclear” family a Challenge for Australian Family Law in the New Millennium’ (Lambert Academic Publishing, Koln, 2009).

Session 3: 1:25 pm - 2:40 pm
Limiting freedom

Mr John Garnaut
Fairfax China Correspondent

'The rise of China and human rights'
Audio recording available here
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Abstract: In the past two years China has tightened political controls on institutions that are necessary to protecting human rights in China including the justice system, media and non-government organisations. At the same time Chinese people have growing expectations of their government and a rising sense of entitlement to rights of citizenship that Australians tend to take for granted.  John Garnaut will talk on how human rights in China are progressing despite China's political system.

Bio: John Garnaut is China correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, and a former commercial lawyer. He has won the prestigious Walkley Award for "scoop of the year" in 2009 and was a finalist in the Graham Perkins Australian Journalist of the Year award in 2010. Most importantly John is a former student of Professor Sarah Joseph's human rights course at Monash University.

Mr Iarla Flynn
Head of Public Policy and Government Affairs (Australia/NZ), Google

'The open internet and censorship' 
Audio recording available here
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Abstract: The Internet has changed the dynamics of information and communications globally but government censorship of the web is growing rapidly. How can the open nature of the Internet be protected?

Bio: Mr Iarla Flynn is Head of Public Policy and Government Affairs with Google for Australia and New Zealand. His policy focus is on preserving the benefits of the open Internet for all Australians. He joined Google in 2007 as European Public Policy Manager based at the Company's European HQ in Ireland. His role included leading Google's advocacy for communications and spectrum liberalisation across Europe. Prior to joining Google he spent 12 years in senior roles in government and telecomms operators in the Irish and European communications sectors.

Session 4: 3.10 pm 4:25 pm
Human rights - the lastest from the UN

Professor Ron McCallum AO
Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Professor of Law, University of Sydney

'How the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities can improve the lives of those living with a disability'
Audio recording available here
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Abstract: This paper will unpack the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  The recent work of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will be discussed.  This committee monitors the Convention by receiving reports from ratifying countries and through the receipt of complaints under its optional protocol.”

Bio: Professor Ronald C McCallum AO was the foundation Blake Dawson Waldron Professor in Industrial Law in the Faculty of Law of the University of Sydney.  He took up this position in January 1993 and retired from this position on 30 September 2007.  This Blake Dawson Waldron professorship was the first full professorship in industrial law at any Australian university.  Ron is the first totally blind person to have been appointed to a full professorship in any field at any university in Australia or New Zealand.  Ron McCallum is currently employed on a fixed-term contract as a Professor of Labour Law in the Faculty of Law of the University of Sydney. 

Professor McCallum has written extensively on labour law matters.  Ron teaches Administrative Law, Public Law and labour law at the University of Sydney at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.  He has also taught labour law at the Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, Ontario Canada, and at Duke University, North Carolina United States of America.  Before commencing teaching at the University of Sydney, he taught at Monash University from 1974 to 1992.

On 1 July 2002, Professor McCallum commenced his five year term as Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Sydney.  His term as Dean of Law concluded on 30 September 2007.  Ron is the first totally blind person to be appointed to the Deanship of a Law School in Australia or New Zealand. Ron was also the inaugural president of the Australian Labour Law Association, and he served in that role from February 2001 to November 2009.  As President, in September 2009 in Sydney, he hosted the XIX World Congress of the International Society for Labour and Social Security Law.  From September 2006 to September 2009, Professor McCallum served as the Asian regional Vice-President of the International Society for Labour and Social Security Law. 

In September 2003, Ron was elected as the Chair of Radio for the Print Handicapped of New South Wales Co-Operative Ltd which operates radio 2RPH, which reads out over the air newspapers and magazines for blind and for other print handicapped listeners.  Since 2006, he has been a member of the Board of Vision Australia Pty Ltd, and in November 2006 he was appointed as one of the two Deputy-Chairs of this Board.  Vision Australia assists blind and vision impaired people in Australia, but especially in the States of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, and in the Northern Territory. 

On 3 September 2008, the Australian Government nominated Professor McCallum as its candidate for election to the inaugural United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  This Committee of Experts overseas the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  This Convention came into force on 3 May 2008. 

On 3 November 2008, Professor McCallum was elected as one of twelve persons who will serve on the inaugural Committee of Experts.  At its inaugural meeting in February 2009, Professor McCallum was made general Rapporteur for the Committee.  At its second meeting in October 2009, Professor McCallum was unanimously elected as 2010 Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

In early 2003, the Australian Government awarded Professor McCallum a Centenary Medal for his role as a labour law scholar and for his role as a disabled citizen in our nation.  In the 2006 Queen's Birthday honours list (12 June 2006), Professor McCallum received the designation of Officer in the Order of Australia for his services to tertiary education, for industrial relations advice to governments, for assistance to visually impaired persons and for social justice.  On 11 October 2007, Professor McCallum received the 2007 Alumni Achievement Award of Queen's University Canada where he had undertaken postgraduate studies in law from 1972 to 1974.

In 1982, Professor McCallum was appointed as one of a number of foreign correspondents to the National Academy of Arbitrators.  The Academy is the professional body for private labour arbitrators in the United States and Canada.  In this role, he has participated in five world-wide comparative labour law studies which have been published in what is now titled the Comparative Labour Law and Policy Journal.

Ron is married to Professor Mary Crock and they have one daughter and two sons.  His hobbies include playing the flute, reading, cooking and meditation.


Associate Professor Jane McAdam
Director of International Refugee and Migration Law Project, Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales

'Climate change and human rights: Whose rights, what protection?'
Audio recording available here
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Abstract: It is a trite observation that climate change will impact upon people’s enjoyment of human rights. Climate processes, such as shoreline erosion, coastal flooding and rising sea levels, as well as more frequent and intense severe climate events, such as storms and cyclones, will affect agriculture, infrastructure, services, and the continued habitability of certain parts of the world. This, in turn, may threaten rights such as the right to life, health, property, culture, means of subsistence, and, in extreme cases, self-determination.

Policies on climate change will necessarily require choices about the distribution of resources and costs. As one commentator has observed, ‘the invocation of human rights can be expected to produce struggles, pitting interest groups against one another in a way that is markedly different from the consensus-building and compromise that has traditionally guided climate negotiations.’ [S Humphreys, ‘Introduction: Human Rights and Climate Change’ in S Humphreys (ed), Human Rights and Climate Change (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010) 7.]  This is especially true where climate change may be a trigger for migration and even community relocation.

Drawing on field work undertaken in Kiribati, Tuvalu and Bangladesh, this paper considers the utility, both from a theoretical and a practical perspective, of seizing upon climate change as a focal point for human rights advocacy. Does ‘climate change’ add something to the human rights debate that cannot already be addressed through existing paradigms? Does it bring a special dimension to the language of rights protection that might help to create new ways of conceiving of, and protecting, the rights of affected peoples? The context of displacement and relocation—complex processes that typically occur at considerable economic, environmental, emotional and social cost—provides the particular backdrop for this analysis.

Bio: Dr Jane McAdam is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of NSW and a Research Associate of the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. She is the Director of Research in the UNSW Law School, and the Director of the International Refugee and Migration Law project at the Law Faculty’s Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law. From 2007–10, she was the Director of International Law Programs and the Director of International Law Moots in the Faculty. Associate Professor McAdam is the author of Complementary Protection in International Refugee Law (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007); co-author with Guy S Goodwin-Gill of The Refugee in International Law (3rd edn, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007); and the editor of Forced Migration, Human Rights and Security (Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2008). She is currently working on two new books under the auspices of an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant: a monograph entitled Climate Change, Displacement and International Law (Oxford University Press, Oxford, forthcoming 2011), and an edited collection entitled Climate Change and Displacement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Hart Publishing, Oxford, in press 2010). She is also a co-author of an interdisciplinary book entitled Climate Change and Australia: Warming to the Global Challenge (Federation Press, Sydney, forthcoming 2010). Associate Professor McAdam is the Associate Rapporteur of the Convention Refugee Status and Subsidiary Protection Working Party for the International Association of Refugee Law Judges. She is a consultant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on the international law aspects of climate-related displacement, and has also been a consultant to the UK and Australian governments. She is a Member of International Law Association (World) International Teaching Committee and the Management Committee of the Refugee Advice and Casework Service in Sydney, and has worked on a variety of projects for the European Union, Green Cross Australia, the Refugee Review Tribunal, the Czech–Helsinki Committee, Amnesty International and the Refugee Council of Australia. Associate Professor McAdam is a member of the Editorial Board of the Australian International Law Journal, a former General Editor of the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal, and a former member of the Editorial Board of the Sydney Law Review.

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* Victoria Bar has certified that attendance at the conference can be accredited one point per hour attended, to a maximum of five CPD points to be allocated in the field of substantive law. *