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Sex Discrimination Commissioner from Australia to deliver lecture on equal opportunity at HKU

07 Mar 2003

 

Ms. Pru Goward, Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, is to deliver a public lecture entitled The Right to Equal Opportunity: Lessons from Australia at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, March 11th, 2003 at Rayson Huang Theatre, the University of Hong Kong. The lecture is jointly organised by the Centre for Comparative and Public Law at Faculty of Law, the University of Hong Kong and the Australian Consulate-General.

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission of Australia has broad powers, including public education, investigation and conciliation of complaints, human rights compliance, and advising on policy and legislative development. Ms. Goward has served as the Australian Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner since June 2001 and previously headed the Office of the Status of Women, where she presided over the introduction of the first national programme for the prevention of domestic violence. Ms. Goward will speak about the challenges of enforcing anti-discrimination legislation, the experience of the Australian Commission, and the importance of maintaining independence from government.

Following her lecture, Ms. Goward will take questions and join Ms. Anna Wu, Chairperson of the Hong Kong Equal Opportunities Commission, for a panel discussion.

Members of the press and interested parties are cordially invited to attend. For enquiries, please contact Ms. Leung of HKU's Faculty of Law at 2859-2941 or email: fkleung@hku.hk.