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Over the past year increasing trends of prejudice and harassment of particular groups in our community has continued to be an area of significant concern for me. As noted in the 2002-03 annual report, I launched the Isma project in March 2003 in response to increasing concerns expressed by Arab and Muslim organisations about the rise in anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice in Australia.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) defines the Middle East as: Bahrain, Gaza Strip and West Bank (Palestine), Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen. North Africa is defined as: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and the Western Sahara. ‘Arab’ includes: Algerian, Egyptian, Iraqi, Jordanian,…

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission summary report on national consultations with Arab and Muslim Australians was launched in Sydney today.

The Ismaع Audio CD and Summary Report can be ordered from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's Publications Unit (free of charge).

Dr William Jonas AM, the Acting Race Discrimination Commissioner of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, launched the Ismaع project in March 2003.

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The Ismaع project was advised by a reference group of 17 people, which included representatives from government agencies and religious and community organisations from across Australia.

The meeting was chaired by the Deputy South Australian Equal Opportunity Commissioner, Ms Anne Burgess and facilitated by Omeima Sukkarieh, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (notes). It was attended by 21 invited participants.

The consultation was organised by the Illawarra Ethnic Communities Council and chaired by the ECC Executive Officer, Kathy Tzanis. The meeting was facilitated by Meredith Wilkie and Omeima Sukkarieh (notes) from HREOC with Omeima also interpreting parts of the discussion. It was attended by 14 invited participants.

The project was officially supported by the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Council of Australia, the Equal Opportunity Commission Victoria, the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria, the Islamic Council of Victoria, the Islamic Girls’ and Women's Group, the Centre for Multicultural Youth Issues, the Victorian Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Coalition and Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE. The…

As part of the Ismaع project, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (the Commission) investigated existing initiatives that address anti-Arab or anti-Muslim prejudice at a local, state and federal level across Australia. We conducted research and requested information about current initiatives from seven federal government agencies, 37 state and territory government agencies …

The Commission is a national independent statutory body established under the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986. It has a President and five Commissioners. The five positions are currently held by three persons. Please refer to the organisational chart for further information.

In June 2003, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) engaged the Centre for Cultural Research (CCR) at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) to investigate Australian Arabs' and Muslims' experiences of post-September 11 racism, the extent to which these experiences were going unreported and the reasons for this. The CCR team was charged with addressing the following questions:

A central function of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission is to undertake education programs that increase public awareness and generate discussion of human rights and anti-discrimination issues within Australia.