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14 December 2012Book page
Homelessness is a Human Rights Issue (2008)
Access to safe and secure housing is one of the most basic human rights. However, homelessness is not just about housing. Fundamentally, homelessness is about lack of connectedness with family, friends and the community and lack of control over one’s environment. -
Disability Rights
14 December 2012SpeechMENTAL HEALTH FOR ALL: WHAT'S THE VISION?
Over the last four years the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (the Commission) has played a key role in raising community awareness about the human rights Australians with a mental illness. The Commission, through its public inquiry process, brought into national focus how, amongst other things, people affected by mental illness frequently faced discrimination and stigmatisation… -
Business and Human Rights
23 February 2021Project
Roundtable and Joint Civil Society Statement on Business and Human Rights (2016)
In March 2016, the Australian Government announced its intention to undertake a national consultation on the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). On 25 May 2016, the Australian Human Rights Commission co-hosted a roundtable with the Human Rights Law Centre on implementing the UNGPs in Australia. The roundtable involved key civil society… -
Commission – General
14 December 2012SpeechPresident Speech: Promoting Women in Leadership
Let me join those who have spoken before me in acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. I pay my respects to their elders past and present, and to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders we have with us tonight. -
Age Discrimination
27 November 2019Media ReleaseAttorneys-General Need to Act on Elder Abuse
Age Discrimination Commissioner Dr Kay Patterson is calling on the Council of Attorneys-General to agree to take immediate action on elder abuse at their meeting tomorrow to develop a timetable outlining its action plan. “Elder abuse is a blight on our society. Older Australians do not have time on their side, they need immediate action from Governments at state and federal levels,” said Dr … -
Rights and Freedoms
14 December 2012SpeechPresident Speech: Religion in the public square
I would like to begin today by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Wurundjeri peoples, and pay my respect to their elders, past and present. -
Asylum Seekers and Refugees
2 December 2020News story
Immigration detention concerns deepen
The Australian Human Rights Commission has today released a report that details increasing concern for the human rights of people held in Australia’s immigration detention facilities. The report contains findings and recommendations arising from the Commission’s most recent in-person inspections of Australia’s immigration detention facilities, including ‘alternative places of detention’ … -
Complaint Information Service14 December 2012Webpage
Complaints under the Age Discrimination Act
Learn how the Age Discrimination Act makes it illegal to treat a person unfairly due to their age, including younger people and older people. -
Race Discrimination
23 July 2015Opinion pieceForty years of the Racial Discrimination Act
In October 1975, at a ceremony for the proclamation of the Racial Discrimination Act, then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam described the legislation as ‘a historic measure’, which aimed to ‘entrench new attitudes of tolerance and understanding in the hearts and minds of the people’.(1) The Act was Australia’s first federal human rights and discrimination law. Enacted shortly after the formal -
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
14 September 2015PublicationTargeted recruitment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
This guideline will help employers to use the ‘special measure’ provisions in the federal Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) and state and territory discrimination laws, to target Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for recruitment. -
1 August 2014Book page
Chapter 5: The legal and policy framework
Learn about how Australia has entered international human rights obligations to stop pregnancy and return to work discrimination against women. -
14 December 2012Book page
Native Title Report 2002: Principles of Discrimination and Native Title
Miriuwung Gajerrong [1] reiterates the principles which guide the High Court’s interpretation of whether laws of the Commonwealth, State or Territory are discriminatory under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cwlth) (‘RDA’), particularly as they apply to legislation which authorises dealings with land. These principles are based on the High Court’s decisions in Gerhardy … -
Disability Rights
14 December 2012Speech
Hastings: Disability discrimination, standards, and OHS
The fact that CEOE is conducting this forum in itself indicates that disability is widely seen by business as presenting significant occupational health and safety (OH&S) issues. And certainly, concerns related to occupational health and safety are widely experienced by people with disabilities as barriers to equal opportunity in employment. -
14 December 2012Book page
About the Australian Human Rights Commission (2012)
We work to find practical and long-term solutions to the human rights issues facing people in Australia, as well as to build greater understanding and respect for human rights in our community. -
Disability Rights
14 December 2012Speech
Using the Disability Convention for practical change (2009)
Some of us here were sitting in a stuffy conference room in the UN headquarters in New York when the Working Group completed its drafting of the convention. It was only stuffy because - in true UN style - we had exceeded our time limit for the session, the interpreters had gone home, and the air-conditioning had been turned off. But for most of us, these disadvantages paled in the excitement of… -
Commission – General
9 April 2013Publication
Strategic Plan 2011-2014
Every three years we are required under our legislation to prepare a new Strategic Plan. We treat this as an opportunity to reflect on our effectiveness in undertaking our functions and duties, and to identify how we can ensure that our future work will result in tangible improvements in human rights for people in Australia. -
14 December 2012Book page
Section 1 - Introduction - Addressing sexual orientation and sex and/or gender identity discrimination: Consultation Report (2011)
In October 2010, the Australian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) launched a consultation regarding the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) people in Australia. This consultation process sought views from affected individuals and organisations about the steps that they felt would provide better human rights protection for LGBTI people in Australia. -
Rights and Freedoms
14 December 2012Opinion piece
No need to abandon human rights to be tough on terror (2006)
In the post-September 11 world, debate about counter-terrorism is often characterised as an argument between 'the realists', who appreciate the need for tough new counter-terrorism laws, and 'the out of touch', who fail to take the terrorist threat seriously. -
Sex Discrimination
14 December 2012PublicationThe Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
These resources have been developed as an update and revision of the Australian Human Rights Commission document, 'Women of the World: Know Your International Human Rights'. -
Legal
14 December 2012WebpageSubmission to the Green Paper on Homelessness - Which way home?
HREOC commends the Commonwealth government on making homelessness a priority issue and recognising that adequate housing is fundamental to social inclusion. Recognition of homelessness as a human rights issue should assist in the development of policy and programs to address homelessness.