Two Canberra community workers have been recognised at the Human Rights Awards.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Last week, equality advocate and radio host Yen Eriksen was awarded the Young People's Human Rights Medal for work on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex issues.
"It's always hard to get recognised as an individual when the work that you do actually belongs to the people you do it with," Eriksen, 23, said of being given the award.
"You get involved in the projects because they mean something to you, and it's not really about big conversations about national human rights stuff."
Eriksen hosts a regular radio program, Friday Night Lip Service, that reflects on the findings of academic studies relevant to the queer commuinty. Eriksen also works for the YWCA as a communications officer and advocate.
Eriksen's advocacy centres on ideas of "intersectionality", or how oppression comes in layers.
An example is the "complex" oppression that Indigenous women experience, "that's not just about being Indigenous, not just about being a woman, and being socio and economically marginalised".
Canberra Community Law's Genevieve Bolton received the law award for work spanning two decades for those people facing disadvantage through such issues as disability, family violence and mental health.
"I welcome the award, and I welcome the recognition it brings in relation to the work that the community legal sector does in Australia," she said.
"It comes at a critical time, in that the sector is facing Commonwealth funding cuts."
Her main concerns are the lack of public housing, and safeguarding the welfare system.
The Australian Human Rights Commission received an "unprecedented" 329 award nominations, president Gillian Triggs said.
"These are record numbers, and they highlight the wide-ranging support for human rights that exists at all levels of the community."
Journalist Peter Greste won this year's Human Rights Medal.
Greste spent 400 days in an Egyptian jail and used his case to advocate for freedom of speech and a free media.
