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

It was a pleasure to be invited to speak at the unveiling of migrant names ceremony at the Welcome Wall of the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour. It is important to keep the migrant history of Australia.
https://vimeo.com/151465832

My speech is below:

Welcome Wall Address_Dr Ozdowski 6 Dec 2015

The Jury’s citation reads:

“George Gittoes AM: For exposing injustice for over 45 years as a humanist artist, activist and filmmaker, for his courage to witness and confront violence in the war zones of the world, for enlisting the arts to subdue aggression and for enlivening the creative spirit to promote tolerance, respect and peace with justice. ”

Gittoes grew up in the Sydney suburb of Rockdale and studied Fine Arts at The University of Sydney. In 1970 he helped establish The Yellow House artists collective in Kings Cross with others including Martin Sharp and Brett Whitely. Gittoes’ activism evolved through his work as a painter, film maker and photojournalist. He has chronicled conflicts and social upheavals in places including Nicaragua, Somalia, Cambodia, Western Sahara, Northern Ireland, Bosnia,Bougainville, East Timor, South Africa, Palestine, Iraq and Pakistan. In 1995 Gittoes was a witness to the massacre of thousands of Rwandans at a displaced persons camp where they had sought protection from UN peacekeeping forces. This inspired his painting The Preacher, which won the 1995 Blake Prize for religious art.

Congratulations again George!

The Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA)’s held its national biennial conference entitled Multiculturalism in Action: Building a better future for all Australians

in Sydney on 5-6 November 2015. The Conference coincided with the 40th anniversary of ECC NSW and the SBS.

I was invited to speak on a panel which discussed the legacy of multiculturalism in Australia, particularly in relation to a potential case for a National Multicultural Act, on the first day of the conference. Few photos and a copy of my contribution are below.

FECCA Conference 2015 -Legislating Multiculturalism_- Dr Ozdowski

I met with Hon. M.A. Sumanthiran, Member of Parliament of Sri Lanka since 2010 representing Jaffna Electoral District and the official Spokesperson for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Party to discuss the current human rights situation in Sri Lanka.

Hon. Sumanthiran was educated Colombo, Madras and Melbourne and is one of Sri Lanka’s top human rights and constitutional lawyers. He has appeared in a number of fundamental rights cases and judicial reviews of parliamentary legislation and executive action including the charging of levy for water and establishing a revenue authority. He prevented the forced expulsion of Tamils from Colombo and successfully challenged an anti-conversion bill which the courts struck down as being unconstitutional. He has also appeared for petitioners against the proposed 18th and 19th amendments to the constitution which were found to be unconstitutional and required two-thirds majority in Parliament and a referendum. He has worked on a number of public interest cases including the on-going attempt by residents of the Valikamam North High Security Zone to get their land back from the Sri Lankan military. His human rights work has led to him being threatened and being branded “traitors in black coats” by the Sri Lankan military.

Hon. Sumanthiran is now working on the implementation of the recent UN Human Rights Council report: ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka.’

It was a pleasure to host Mr Steve Killelea AM at the WSU Open Forum on:  Positive Peace – What creates inclusiveness?  Steve is an accomplished entrepreneur inhigh technology business development and his custemers include: Visa, Mastercard and American Express; stock exchanges in the New York, London and Hong Kong and most of the world’s ATM’s.

Steve has used his wealth to finance philanthropic activities focused on sustainable development and peace. He is the founder of the Institute for Economics and Peace  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Economics_and_Peace – an international think tank dedicated to building a greater understanding of the interconnection between business, peace and economics. The Global Peace Index study ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Peace_Index ), launched in May 2007 attempts to rank the world’s nations’ and regions’ peacefulness. The Institute was recently ranked in the top 15 most impactful think tanks in the world on the Global Go to Think Tank Index.

The 2015 Global Terrorism Index will be released on 17 November. Now in its third year, the report provides a detailed analysis of the changing trends in terrorism across 162 countries, over the last 15 years. It investigates the patterns of terrorism by geographic activity, methods of attack, organisations involved and the national economic and political context. Socio-economic indicators are also analysed to determine the key underlying factors that have the closest statistical relationship to terrorism.

For more about the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) see the Attachment.

2015-11-07 IEP Country Risk Analysis

I had a pleasure to address the Year 10 in Al Amanah College in Liverpool (see: http://www.alamanah.nsw.edu.au/ ) about human rights in Australia, and in particular about refugee issues, immigration detention and children’s rights.

The students have shown a great interest in human rights issues and a lively discussion followed. At the conclusion students were awarded, on behalf of the Australian Council for Human Rights Education, the Citizen for Humanity Certificate.

I look forward to visit the Al Amanah College again.

Yesterday I have attended the second meeting of The Australian Multicultural Council.  I chair the Council, which is an advisory body to Government on multicultural policy and programmes.

Multicultural policy: The Council discussed and consolidated their advice to Government on strategic policy issues relating to social harmony and community cohesion, in particular the need to continue to emphasise the positive social and economic outcomes arising from a multicultural Australia.

The Council discussed the Multicultural Access and Equity Policy: Respecting diversity. Improving responsiveness (2013) and noted the Council’s new oversight for this policy.

Interfaith: Professor Emeritus Gary Bouma AM led a discussion on the religious diversity of Australia’s population, noting that religious diversity has increased since the 1980s both between and within religious groups, and in the proportion who report having no religion.  Professor Bouma concluded that increased religious diversity makes interfaith dialogue harder but more important.  The Council considered their role of strengthening interfaith dialogue and opportunities to do so in contemporary Australia.

Productive Diversity: The Council noted that productive diversity recognises the importance of working together with Australia’s diverse communities in developing international business relationships.  The Council discussed barriers to employment participation as an important factor in enhancing productive diversity. The Council also noted that qualification deficits (including English proficiency), skills recognition, local knowledge and social factors were important in reducing employment barriers.

It was a pleasure to address the Australia Press Council (APC) media conference on  multiculturalism in the Australian media. This important event was organised jointly by Professor David Weisbrot, Chair, APC and by the leaders of Chinese community. Other speakers included The Hon. Helen Sham-Ho and Dr Geoffrey Lee Member for Parramatta and Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs. The function was held at the Marigold Restaurant, in Chinatown.

For more information see the online report in Chinese language from Sing Tao newspaper: ?http://admin.wechat.com/s?biz=MzA3NDM1MDIwMw==&mid=209677490&idx=5&sn=158bb5abd348dca0f2c14a68a21a7d81&scene=5#rd

and from Sydney Today newspaper

http://www.sydneytoday.com/content/746144?mobile=true