Monday 27 July 2015

New Patron for OWN Australia Inc

Image result for gillian triggs

OWN Australia Inc. is honoured to advise that Emeritus Professor Gillian Triggs, President, Australian Human Right Commission, will join the Honourable Dame Quentin Bryce, AD, CVO as a Patron of the Older Womens' Network Australia Incorporated.

Professor Triggs graduated in Law from the University of Melbourne in 1968 and gained a PhD in 1982. She has combined an academic career with international commercial legal practice and worked with governments and international organizations on human rights law. She hopes to focus her Presidency on the implementation in Australian law of the human rights treaties to which Australia is a party, and to work with nations in the Asia Pacific region on practical approaches to human rights.

Professor Triggs' long-standing commitment to legal education will build upon the Commission's efforts to inform Australians, especially children, about their fundamental human rights.

She has been a consultant on International Law to Mallesons Stephen Jaques, a Board Member of the Public Interest Law Clearing House (PILCH), the Australian representative on the Council of Jurists for the Asia Pacific Forum for National Human Rights Institutions, Chair of the Board of the Australian International Health Institute, a member of the Attorney General's International Legal Service Advisory Council and Chair of the Council of Australian Law Deans.

Emeritus Professor Gillian Triggs is the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, taking up her appointment by the Commonwealth Attorney-General in 2012. She was Dean of the Faculty of Law and Challis Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney from 2007-12 and Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law from 2005-7. She is a former Barrister with Seven Wentworth Chambers and a Governor of the College of Law. 

Thursday 9 July 2015

VIC and NSW Volunteer Awards open!

Posted on Jul 09, 2015 03:12 PM | Permalink

VIC and NSW Volunteer Awards open!
Do you know a volunteer or program worthy of an award? Photo: flickr.com/photos/directrelief/
Know a particularly amazing volunteer? Been part of an exceptional volunteer program?  Heard of a company that’s made a huge difference through its employee volunteering program?
Nominations have opened for both the 2015 NSW Volunteer of the Year Awards and Victoria’s inaugural State Volunteering Awards – with applications for both sets of awards closing soon!
The NSW Awards are run by the Centre for Volunteering, and are the State’s way of recognising the incredible contribution of volunteers to the community. As put by CEO Gemma Rygate, “the 2.4 million volunteers in NSW contribute $8 billion to our economy. If volunteering was an industry, it would one of the largest in the state.”
Nominations are open for:
  • Student Volunteer of the Year
  • Youth Volunteer of the Year
  • Adult Volunteer of the Year
  • Senior Volunteer of the Year
  • Volunteer Team of the Year
  • Excellence in Volunteer Management
  • Corporate Volunteer of the Year (individual)
  • Corporate Volunteer Team of the Year
For all of the details and to make a nomination before the closing date of 24 July, head to the Centre for Volunteering website here: http://www.volunteering.com.au/about-the-awards/.


Another boost for Gender Equality
Facebook just made a subtle design change to its icons that probably won't be noticed by the vast majority of its users but that could profoundly influence perceptions of women.
The changes were made to the tiny icons that appear in the upper right-hand corner of the social networking site. For years, the company had used a "friends" icon with a man and woman, with the woman positioned behind the man. Worse yet, the generic female avatar looked like her shoulder had been lopped off.
The symbolism was glaring to Caitlin Winner, a design manager who spearheaded an effort to change the icons. And in an industry under increasing criticism for its lack of gender and racial diversity, such decisions on designs contribute to the unconscious biases that have made it so hard for women to advance.

"As a woman, educated at a women's college, it was hard not to read into the symbolism of the current icon; the woman was quite literally in the shadow of the man, she was not in a position to lean in," Winner wrote in a post on Medium.
Without much fanfare, Facebook began to roll out the changes for desktop and mobile users this week.
In the new "friends" icon, the female avatar is placed in front of the male icon .
A Fennell