Human rights commission

Further questions / activities

Why do you think you ought to be alive?

(a) The Council of Universal Authority

Explain to the class that it has become the Council of Universal Authority. The Ministry for Minor Life-Forms reports the discovery of a species of thinking beings on a small planet in a remote solar system in a galaxy the Council doesn't hear from much. Under the current Council plan, that part of the cosmos is supposed to be cleared so that space-farmers can use it to grow more

Extract from Ralph Pettman Teaching for human rights: activities for schools, Hodja Educational Resources Cooperative Ltd for the Human Rights Commission, Richmond, Vic., 1984, pp.66-7.

A
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ttachment B

THE FAMILY

The family, Article 16(3) of the Universal Declaration proclaims. 'is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State^..

Bedrock unit it may well be but it is not immune from the forces that shape society itself. Indeed, the family typically takes the form relevant to the socio-economic and cultural realities of the larger community it lies within. At the same time, of course, it plays its own part in conditioning them. Thus, hierarchically arranged societies manifest patterns of family power of a similar sort. Egalitarian societies typically manifest more equal familial relationships. And vice versa.

In Australia — a liberal, capitalist, multicultural democracy, with social welfare proclivities, a highly stratified class structure, a value system that is secular, racist. sexist and materialistic -- the family reflects and promotes this fact.

The picture is far from static or clear, however. Quite the contrary. As our society has changed, so, in symbiotic ^-fashion, has this 'fundamental group unit'. The conventional Anglo-bourgeois model of Mum, Dad, and the Kids (plus assorted 'rellies') has neverbeen adequate as a description of the Australian family, though it has been very powerful in defining expectations in this regard.

Aboriginal Australians, with the elaborate kinship systems intrinsic to Aboriginal culture, have never sat happily within the imperial framework. Nor have many of those who came after them. The mass immigration of the last few generations has meant, among other things, the importation of a wide range of multicultural family forms. However, given the highly assimilationist nature of the dominant Anglo-culture, these, like those of Aboriginal Australians, have never received much official recognition. They continue to flourish more or less modified - nonetheless.

Meanwhile, the conventional model as defined in Anglo-Celtic terms has become progressively less accurate as an account of conventional behaviour. The effects of secular individualism have taken a heavy toll, and modifications to the monocultural version now abound. For example, in terms of human rights, there is no ideal form of the family. There is only the decree that government should protect families, and those who live therein. Unless one has a prior conception of what the family ought to be, and applies this regardless (a distinctly totalitarian approach), a wide range of current familial forms justify governmental recognition in the promotion and protection of this fundamental right. There are, in other words, a number of group units that people find 'natural' and 'fundamental' in the performance of familial functions, and if Article 16(3) is to be given a fair go, governments are obliged to acknowledge and allow for this fact.

Focal questions

How would you define the Australian family?

What, in State or societal terms at least, does 'protecting the family entail?

Further questions/activities I. What do families do?

(a) Familial _.functions

Discuss with the class what it is that any sort of family does. Make a list on the board.

Whether one-parent, two-parent, multi-parent or extended, any family (in whole or in part):

1 serves adult needs for companionship, recreation, and procreation...

Extract from Pettman, op.cit., pp.152 3.

Appendix XIV

Human Rights Commission offices
Australian Capital Territory Fcrgus Thomson

Secretary

6th Floor. AMP Building

Hobart Place Canberra. A.C. T. 2601

(062) 43 4122

Queensland

Joan Ross

Regional Director

Human Rights Commission 15th Floor. MLC Centre

Car George & Adelaide Streets Brisbane. Qld 4000

107) 221 8399

Commission agencies New South Wales

Carmel Niland

President

Anti Discrimination Board

11th floor

8 18 Bent Street

Sydney N.S.W, 2000

[phone]

Victoria

Fay Marles

Commissioner for Equal Opportunity

9th floor. 350 Collins Street Melbourne, Vic. 3000

[phone]

Northern Territory

D
106
awn Lawrie

Human Rights Commission Representative

3rd Floor

Royal Life Building

13 Cavenagh Street

Dar in, N.T. 5794

0)89) 81 1668

Tasmania

Nabil Kazemi

Human Rights Commission Representative

Commonwealth Law Courts 39-41 Davey Street Hobart Tas. 7000

(002) 20 1700

South Australia

Josephine Tiddy Commissioner_. for Equal Opportunity

Ground floor

30 Wakefield Street
Adelaide. S.A. 5000

8. 
   227 0944
   

Western .A ustralia

June Wilhams Commissoner for Equal Opportunity

City Mutual Building

5 Mill Street Perth,W.A. 6000

8. 
   48l 0833