VCOSS

Human rights

Protective Services Officers

VCOSS is concerned about the Victorian Government’s policy to introduce Protective Services Officers (PSOs) on metropolitan and regional rail stations. We are particularly concerned that there has been inadequate consultation about the proposed role of the PSOs and the training they will receive. VCOSS, along with a number of signatories, has written to the Government to voice these concerns. Read the letter here:

PSO letter to the Hon. Mary Wooldridge

Making human rights real: Victorian workshops to translate human rights into practice

The Australian Centre of Human Rights Education at RMIT University, the Victorian Local Governance Association and the Victorian Council of Social Service recently hosted a series of participatory workshops across Victoria to facilitate people’s understanding of human rights, the relevance of human rights to everyday life and to provide the tools to develop a human rights based approach to service delivery and policy development in their organisation. The workshops were held in response to the Australian Government identifying the importance of human rights education. Find your nearest workshop and register online.

VCOSS Human rights project 2010

VCOSS was funded by the Department of Justice for a twelve month Human rights project whichaimed to engage community sector organisations with human rights, particularly in terms of how a human rights framework is relevant to their every day work. There are two key parts to the work - four human rights forums and a survey to capture how community sector organisations are using the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities.

The forums focused on supporting practice change and moving toward a rights-based framework being applied in policy and practice in community sector organisations in light of the introduction of the Victorian Charter of Human rights and Responsibilities. The four forums were:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples:
Participants not recipients - Human rights and self-determination Forum
12 May 2010

Agenda
Presentation - Professor Larissa Behrendt, Professor of Law and Director of Research, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology, Sydney

 

Mental Health & Human Rights in Victoria:
Creative Ways Forward to Promote the Rights of People with a Mental Illness
7 September 2010

Agenda
Presentation - Mary O’Hagan, Former National Mental Health Commissioner, New Zealand

 

Children’s Rights in Victoria:
Promoting a rights-based approach and embedding children’s perspectives in practice
6 October 2010

Agenda

 

Homelessness & Human Rights in Victoria:
Using Human Rights as an advocacy tool for ending homelessness - “doing rights” in casework, organisational change & law reform,
16 November 2010

Agenda
Presentation - Jason Rostant, Manager Community Engagement, Planning and Development, Western Region Health