Personal Letter to celebrant colleagues
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- Are you a celebrant ?
- Do you support the principle of human rights for all Australian citizens ?
- Do you support the need for anti-discrimination legislation, policies and practices for ALL people regardless of their race, age, gender, sexual orientation, ability, education, economic standing and religion/ or lack thereof ?
- Are you interested in the role celebrants can play in the promotion and protection of human rights in Australia ?
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I am considering forming a non-profit association based on celebrancy and human rights, if there is sufficient interest and support from fellow celebrants and others.
This would obviously be a totally separate body to the ACCN, which is a private celebrant support business.
With a celebrancy and human rights focus, I made submissions to the Human Rights Consultation, some information about these below.
If you answer YES to the above questions and are interested in finding out more, please CLICK HERE to register your interest
Rona Goold
Civil Marriage Celebrant
Robertson NSW |
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The Final Report of the Human Rights Consultation (HRC)
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REFERENCE: National Human Rights Consultation Report website
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| On Thursday 8th October 2009, The Attorney-General Hon Robert Robert McClelland MP issued a Presss Release titled The Protection and Promotion of Human Rights in Australia. Full copy is available on the ACCN website |
As some readers may be aware, as the ACCN Director, I submitted a number of submissions proposing an extended the role for civil marriage celebrants to promote and unhold huuman and civic rights and responisbilities in ceremony and celebration.
In particular, it was recommended that there be a government supported program: |
- for Coming of Adulthood / Full Citizenship ceremonies for all Australians turning 18 years
- a review and upgrade of informational materials supplied as part of the role of marriage celebrants to incorporate human rights principles
- a broadening of the units available in the Certificate IV in Celebrancy to incorporate the above aspect
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See: Full copy of ACCN Discussion paper and link to Final Submission
Whilst not all ACCN members agreed with the overall thrust of this Submission, many did.
This Press Release by the Attorney-General announced the finalisation and presentation of National Human Rights Consultation Report to the Federal Government.
The full Report, its Summary, Recommendations and other Detailed Comments can be downloaded from National Human Rights Consultation Report website.
These Recommendations may also be read on this Aska Celebrant website See Full List of Human Rights Consultation Recommendations.
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ACCN proposal for civil celebrants to have a role in the promotion of human rights
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Basically the ACCN proposal is based on the premise that celebrants deliver a range of "messages" either directly in words that they deliver, or indirectly via symbols and other means to Australian citizens at very significant stages in their lives.
Each ceremony involves the communication of univeral 'spiritual' ( ie non-material) '
* with the aim of celebrating love and life - upholding and inspiring others to live to the best of human values and aspirations
* to honour all people - the diversity of their individual talents and skills; gender; race; family, educational, religious, social, cultural backgrounds; life experiences; beliefs; personal, emotional, spiritual, social and other needs.
As such celebrants are involved in informal 'education' and 'promotion' of respectful and harmonious relationships between people.
No specific reference to the ACCN submission in the reports has been found thus far, and this is perhaps unlikely, given the Committee had 35,000 submissions to address as well as the feedback from a wide range of community consultations |
However, there are a number of the HRC recommendations that relate to our roles as civil celebrants in Australia that I would like to explore with fellow celebrants.
Hence my request above to hear from celebrants who are:
* interested in the 'human rights and responsibilities' aspects of our work, and
* would like to dialogue about how these aspects of our work may be more fully addressed by federal government.
These are the specific aspects (highlight in red) of the report considered specifically relevant to celebrants roles: |
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Creating a human rights culture
Recommendation 2
The Committee recommends as follows:
· that the Federal Government develop a national plan to implement a comprehensive framework, supported by specific programs, of education in human rights and responsibilities in schools, universities, the public sector and the community generally
· that human rights education be based on Australia’s international human rights obligations, as well as those that have been implemented domestically (whether in a Human Rights Act or otherwise), and the mechanisms for enforcement of those rights
· that the Federal Government publish a readily comprehensible list of Australian rights and responsibilities that can be translated into various community languages
· that any education and awareness campaign incorporate the experiences of Indigenous Australians—with a particular focus on recent and historical examples of human rights concerns
· that the Federal Government collaborate with non-government organisations and the private sector in developing and implementing its national plan for human rights education.
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Human rights in policy and legislation
Recommendation 4
The Committee recommends as follows:
· that the Federal Government conduct an audit of all federal legislation, policies and practices to determine their compliance with Australia’s international human rights obligations, regardless of whether a federal Human Rights Act is introduced. The government should then amend legislation, policies and practices as required, so that they become compliant
· that, in the conduct of the audit, the Federal Government give priority to the following areas:
– anti-discrimination legislation, policies and practices
– national security legislation, policies and practices
– immigration legislation, policies and practices
– policies and practices of Australian agencies that could result in Australians being denied their human rights when outside Australia’s jurisdiction.
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Human rights in practice
Recommendation 8
The Committee recommends as follows:
· that the Federal Government develop a whole-of-government framework for ensuring that human rights—based either on Australia’s international obligations or on a federal Human Rights Act, or both—are better integrated into public sector policy and legislative development, decision making, service delivery, and practice more generally
· that the Federal Government nominate a Minister responsible for implementation and oversight of the framework and for annual reporting to parliament on the operation of the framework.
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