Normalising Ability Diversity through Career Transitions:Disability at Work. This project aims to investigate how the higher education sector can better support people with disabilities to transition from economic exclusion to work. One in five Australians have a disability and of these 47.3% are not employed. This is a significant issue with regulatory failures and challenges often affecting rights to education and work being exercised on an equal basis. This project seeks to examine internatio ....Normalising Ability Diversity through Career Transitions:Disability at Work. This project aims to investigate how the higher education sector can better support people with disabilities to transition from economic exclusion to work. One in five Australians have a disability and of these 47.3% are not employed. This is a significant issue with regulatory failures and challenges often affecting rights to education and work being exercised on an equal basis. This project seeks to examine international legal norms, theories and strategic and operational practices in the higher education sector. Expected outcomes include advances in scholarship on ableism, informed policy reform, and transferable operational processes for the education and employment sectors, to improve the transition of people with disabilities to work.Read moreRead less
Responsibility, regionalism and refugees. This project will ask how responsibility for refugees may be shared among countries, resulting in guiding principles for policy makers and other outputs that will inform debates about potential models for responsibility sharing at the United Nations and within Australia.
The Impact of Hate Speech Laws on Public Discourse in Australia. 2009 will mark the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the first Australian laws (NSW) directed at the regulation of hate speech. Although hate speech laws are now firmly embedded in Australia's legal landscape, and have been extended in some jurisdictions to vilification based on religious and sexual orientation, they remain a controversial instrument for supporting Australia's policies on multiculturalism, religious tolerance an ....The Impact of Hate Speech Laws on Public Discourse in Australia. 2009 will mark the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the first Australian laws (NSW) directed at the regulation of hate speech. Although hate speech laws are now firmly embedded in Australia's legal landscape, and have been extended in some jurisdictions to vilification based on religious and sexual orientation, they remain a controversial instrument for supporting Australia's policies on multiculturalism, religious tolerance and respect for difference. An examination of the effects of hate speech laws on public discourse - both intended and unintended - will offer valuable insights about the capacity of law to deliver social cohesion in 21st century Australia.Read moreRead less
Strengthening the Human Rights Focus of Anti-Discrimination Law and Practice. Australian anti-discrimination legislation aims to promote and protect human rights, but its impact has been limited by reliance on private, individualised complaint-handling processes, and by the limited capacity of anti-discrimination agencies to engage in broader inquiries or litigation strategies. This project will determine how to maximise awareness and protection of human rights through the discrimination complai ....Strengthening the Human Rights Focus of Anti-Discrimination Law and Practice. Australian anti-discrimination legislation aims to promote and protect human rights, but its impact has been limited by reliance on private, individualised complaint-handling processes, and by the limited capacity of anti-discrimination agencies to engage in broader inquiries or litigation strategies. This project will determine how to maximise awareness and protection of human rights through the discrimination complaint-handling process, the management of anti-discrimination litigation, and/or the use of other agency functions and powers. By incorporating both the conciliation and litigation aspects of anti-discrimination procedures, systematically examining international models, and involving one of the anti-discrimination agencies as industry partner, the project is designed to contribute significantly to the implementation of human rights in Australia.Read moreRead less
The nexus of law and biology for emerging technologies. At the beginning of the 21st century, biological information has never been more important to law. With the goal of enhancing economic development, the proposed collaboration synthesizes key concepts from jurisprudence and biology. Key research sites of national and international teams- (1) Biologic, Legal Logic; (2) Medical Genetics and Consumers; (3) Feminism, Law, Biology and (4) Biotechnology, Ethics, Environment - explore specific leg ....The nexus of law and biology for emerging technologies. At the beginning of the 21st century, biological information has never been more important to law. With the goal of enhancing economic development, the proposed collaboration synthesizes key concepts from jurisprudence and biology. Key research sites of national and international teams- (1) Biologic, Legal Logic; (2) Medical Genetics and Consumers; (3) Feminism, Law, Biology and (4) Biotechnology, Ethics, Environment - explore specific legal implications of biological information and synergise the intersections. Outcomes and benefits include enhanced communication between jurisprudence and biology, important fora for the disciplines to learn about each other and an internationally recognised national research institute of Law and Biology based in Brisbane.Read moreRead less
'Trading' Women's Rights in Transitions: Designing Diplomatic Interventions in Afghanistan and Myanmar. This project aims to examine the link between diplomatic negotiations and their impact on the shifting status of women during times of deep political change. It will assess three key areas of international diplomatic negotiations around peace agreements, aid, and security sector reform and assess how these negotiations affected women's status on the ground. It will seek to design approaches to ....'Trading' Women's Rights in Transitions: Designing Diplomatic Interventions in Afghanistan and Myanmar. This project aims to examine the link between diplomatic negotiations and their impact on the shifting status of women during times of deep political change. It will assess three key areas of international diplomatic negotiations around peace agreements, aid, and security sector reform and assess how these negotiations affected women's status on the ground. It will seek to design approaches to diplomatic interventions that may be more cognisant of gendered impacts and aim to benefit women.Read moreRead less
Sexual harassment in Australia: Contexts, outcomes and prevention. Sexual harassment remains a persistent workplace issue with significant social costs. The project will examine how to most effectively prevent sexual harassment and to reduce the impact of sexual harassment for individuals and organizations where it occurs. A comprehensive analysis will be undertaken, drawing on a longitudinal study of more than 100 'targets' of sexual harassment, interviews with a wide range of employers and ext ....Sexual harassment in Australia: Contexts, outcomes and prevention. Sexual harassment remains a persistent workplace issue with significant social costs. The project will examine how to most effectively prevent sexual harassment and to reduce the impact of sexual harassment for individuals and organizations where it occurs. A comprehensive analysis will be undertaken, drawing on a longitudinal study of more than 100 'targets' of sexual harassment, interviews with a wide range of employers and external complaint handling bodies, and an analysis of formal and informal reports. The project outcomes will contribute to improved policy and practice in workplaces and human rights and assist other bodies to prevent and more effectively respond to sexual harassment.Read moreRead less
Australian human rights complaints: Litigation, mediation or conciliation. This project will assess the effectiveness of the mechanisms used to resolve human rights complaints in Australia – conciliation, mediation and litigation. It will be the first project to evaluate the effectiveness of these mechanisms in a human rights context. Working with industry partners from the legal sector and four human rights commissions, this project will generate new knowledge on human rights complaints and on ....Australian human rights complaints: Litigation, mediation or conciliation. This project will assess the effectiveness of the mechanisms used to resolve human rights complaints in Australia – conciliation, mediation and litigation. It will be the first project to evaluate the effectiveness of these mechanisms in a human rights context. Working with industry partners from the legal sector and four human rights commissions, this project will generate new knowledge on human rights complaints and on the views of key stakeholders about the effectiveness of the mechanisms used to resolve human rights complaints. This new information will inform legal and policy reform throughout Australia. The expected outcomes include developing a robust evidence-based model for human rights dispute resolution in the Australian context.Read moreRead less
Regulating and countering structural inequality on digital platforms. This project aims to find legal, ethical, technical, and commercial opportunities to counter inequality online. It uses machine learning and custom data collection tools to create new knowledge about how digital platforms—including search engines, social media, peer economy, and news platforms—can help to tackle misogyny, racism, and other forms of structural discrimination. It uses this knowledge to investigate the extent to ....Regulating and countering structural inequality on digital platforms. This project aims to find legal, ethical, technical, and commercial opportunities to counter inequality online. It uses machine learning and custom data collection tools to create new knowledge about how digital platforms—including search engines, social media, peer economy, and news platforms—can help to tackle misogyny, racism, and other forms of structural discrimination. It uses this knowledge to investigate the extent to which private sector digital platforms can be expected to monitor and regulate the actions of their users, what responsibilities they have to avoid contributing to discrimination, hatred, intolerance and abuse, and how the law should develop to ensure that our digital environment is more equal and fair. Read moreRead less
Commercial risk management in the health environment: exploring the legal and ethical boundaries of consent in genetic diagnostic research. There is little empirical research on consent in clinical research, particularly genetic diagnostic testing, despite its key significance to risk management in medical research practice. This study analyses consent procedures of clinicians and researchers for individual research participants. Key clinicians and Laboratory Heads engaged in genetic diagnostic ....Commercial risk management in the health environment: exploring the legal and ethical boundaries of consent in genetic diagnostic research. There is little empirical research on consent in clinical research, particularly genetic diagnostic testing, despite its key significance to risk management in medical research practice. This study analyses consent procedures of clinicians and researchers for individual research participants. Key clinicians and Laboratory Heads engaged in genetic diagnostic research will be interviewed and consent forms assessed. This will produce identification of trends in consent procedures and baseline information for national studies. The significance is the priority accorded genetic research, the need for adequate risk management in that context and development of optimal consent procedures and policy at State and National levels.Read moreRead less