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Speeches
In his capacity as the Chairman of the Community Relations Commission For a multicultural New South Wales, Stepan Kerkyasharian AM has presented a number of speeches on topics relating to the mandate of the CRC.
Accessible via the list below by clicking on the icon on the right are the transcripts from a selection of these speeches along with transcripts of speeches given by Cardinal George Pell, the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, and Imam Feisal, President of the American Sufi Muslim Association, at an interfaith gathering at St Mary's Cathedral on the 1st of April 2004.
Address to the FECCA Congress in Hobart
31 July 2007In my view what is needed is an amendment to the Constitution of Australia. A simple clause to the following effect:- “All Australians no matter of what ethnic, religious, race or cultural affiliation are equal before the law and are guaranteed the presumption of innocence until found guilty by a court of law”.
Address at the inaugural Passover Interfaith Dinner
28 March 2007"Tonight I feel the spirit of unity of purpose; the irrepressible desire to live together in peace and harmony. What we all feel here tonight is that the sheer weight of goodwill reflected by this event and many others before should be bottled and dispersed throughout the community.”
2004 Symposium
7 July 2004"It has been just over six months since the last Community Relations Symposium and I am pleased to see a mix of both familiar and new faces amongst the crowd."
Cardinal George Pell
1 April 2004"It is my pleasant duty to welcome you all to this interfaith gathering at St Mary's Cathedral. You are all welcome: Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus, those of uncertain faith and perhaps a few without faith. We are here to pray for continuing peace and mutual tolerance, especially in our own land of Australia."
Crime Prevention Through Social Support
26 October 1998"The Commission is doing a lot of work with Police on how Police are seen in the community. This affects the ability of Police to best respond to and prevent criminal behaviour. These areas include building a culturally diverse Police Service, looking at prejudice-related crimes, using interpreters and developing community relations."
Ethnicity and Crime under the Microscope
2 November 1998"We need to be cautious about linking ethnicity and crime in the one breath. Knowing little about it has not prevented certain groups from drawing conclusions at both ends of the spectrum. While some groups deny the social interplay between crime and ethnic background, others have gone to the extreme of blaming ethnicity for criminal behaviour. Neither view does justice to the reality that crime is a community problem and that the community needs to come up with sensitive and creative ways of addressing it."
Launch of How to Live Together by Charles Rojzman
10th April 2000"When I look through this book and see the headings and sub-headings it reads like a hand-book for a chair of an ethnic affairs commission or perhaps more appropriately for a chair of a community relations commission, which we expect to be later this year. I say this because there is a lot which is immediately familiar to me."
Imam Feisal
1st April 2004"We are here both as individuals and as representatives of our religious traditions. We must take advantage of this unusual breadth, a breadth not only of religion and geographical views of each other, but also of social vantage points. We have experienced the reality that there is a multiplicity of religious voices in the world, and have come to affirm, importantly, that common religious, moral and policy grounds can be found in an exchange among these voices."
Multiculturalism in Australia
28 March 1998"I emphasise here the fact that we are multicultural, and will remain so whether we want it or not and whether some like it or not and whether we use the ‘M’ word or not."
Sydney University Graduation Ceremony
8 June 2007"I know that each of you graduates feel a sense of pride and gratification for your achievements which are being recognised today. In my case it is an honorary degree which recognises my life’s activities which as some of you may know, in the last 30 odd years, has been dedicated to the promotion of mutual understanding among people of different races and religions."
The Journalist and Islam Conference
8 December 2006"Media and consequently journalists have a key role to play in effecting a positive response and outcome to the questions I posed. At the very least, the Australian media must report on, must reflect on the reality of Islam within our society as the faith of a large number of fellow Australians. It cannot continue to ignore the positive aspects of a major section of our society."
Welcome to the Real World
8 December 2006"For many people, migrants in particular, the police will be the first contact they will have with our legal system. Police are also the first point of contact in many trying situations, like a car crash, the death of a relative, a missing child and so on. In tense and highly emotional situations like these, it is essential for the police to be aware of other people’s real worlds".