The Human Rights Meeting

The meeting itself was fairly small in size though most of the seats were filled. Made up mostly of elderly people, members of the local Amnesty group and a locla Aboriginal Reconciliation group as well as a handful of university students.

A lot of my friends couldn't make it because of prior comittments so I was in effect representing quite a few folk.

The speakers were impressive giving very different perspectives. Dr Jurgen Brohmer who had worked with Human Rights laws in Europe gave an interesting and informative explantaion of how they work there and of various catagories of rights, Dr eric Ghosh on the various ways that such rights could in their various forms interact with the cutrent system and finally there was Proffessor Helen Ware who explained the needs for human rights protections by ilustrating some issues as well as giving some of her experiences working within the human rights field and changing attitudes in the community.

I have been further impressed by Independant MP Tony Windsor. He wasn't there to just get his picture taken, it was no token involvement. He showed clear attention to the speakers, to the questions asked of them by the audience and often turned around to read the projected points on the screen behind him.

As for me i asked one question regarding Dr Ghosh's suggestion of large civilian juries to hear human rights issues rather than judges. (my concern was how to minimise socially embeded prejudices against traditionally unpopular groups)

I also went in a fairly conservative appearance for me, no makeup and only minor jewelry etc. I'm sure I still stood out but my point to be there was to be involved for universal human rights not just my own Goth and TG communities.

I put my name down to be available for the comittee to work out the local community consultation submission. Hopefully I can make a positive contribution.

All in all I am very thankful to everyone involved in this process and I hope that this process results in a good set of universal human rights protections for all Australians.