I was delighted to be appointed in the Australia Day Honours list as a Member of the Order of Australia for “for significant service to the community, particularly to human rights education, social justice and multiculturalism, and as an academic”. Thank you very much for many kind wishes and congratulations I have received. In fact, I am thrilled and all wonderful, unanticipated emails and telephone calls have really enriched the whole AM experience.

While I am grateful and honoured personally, more important to me is that this award acknowledges the importance of human rights and multicultural Australia and all those who toil to advance these ideals. So my particular thanks go to all who have worked with me on human rights education, and in particular to members of the Australian Council for Human Rights Education http://www.humanrightseducationaustralia.com/about.php and to those who have helped me to organise past six International Human Rights Education conferences http://www.westernsydney.edu.au/equity_diversity/equity_and_diversity/conferences/international_human_rights_education_conferences.

Thank you also to my co-workers on the Australian Multicultural Council (https://www.dss.gov.au/our-responsibilities/settlement-and-multicultural-affairs/programs-policy/a-multicultural-australia/australian-multicultural-council) and to all who worked to advance Australia as just and fair multicultural society with opportunities open to all.

Honours such as these carry with them humbling obligations which I will pursue with renewed energy in all my endeavours.

I have just returned from the 6th International Human Rights Conference titled ‘Translating Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms to Today’s World’ that was held at the University College Roosevelt in Middelburg, The Netherlands, between 17-19 December 2015.

I am pleased to report that the conference was a great success. It was attended by over 300 people from some 40 countries. The Conference was opened by Dr JMM Polman, King’s Commissioner of Zeeland, Dr Jet Bussemaker, Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science and Dr Morten Kjaerum, Head, Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. I, as the Foundation Convenor and IHREC Series Coordinator, delivered the opening and closing remarks and chaired two sessions. My opening remarks are attached. To view the conference website and the Middelburg Declaration that resulted from the Conference – please visit http://www.ihrec2015.org/. Please find also attached the Conference Program and the opening speech by the President, ACHRE, Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM.

I have also been hosted in The Hague by Sir David Baragwanath, the second longest serving New Zealand High Court Judge and now Appellate Judge at The united Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon and attended the session of the Tribunal.

The next conference (7th IHREC) will be hosted by the Faculty of Law, Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Chile on 12 – 15 December 2016 (initial flyer attached). Planning is also well underway for the 2017 conference to be hosted by the Equitas, International Centre for Human Rights Education, Montreal, Canada.

The conference series will return to Western Sydney University in November 2018 which will coincide with the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Australian initiative to organise this conference series, and the conference returning to Australia in 2018, offers a great opportunity to be showcased in an Australian bid for a seat at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

2015-12-17 6TH IHRE OPENING REMARKS BY SEV OZDOWSKI – final for publishing
111 IHREC2015 Conference booklet – final