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Complaints

Publications

Race Discrimination

Guide to the Racial Hatred Act

The Racial Hatred Act, introduced in October 1995, extends the coverage of the RDA so that people can complain to the Australian Human Rights Commission about racially offensive or abusive behaviour. It aims to strike a balance between two valued rights: the right to communicate freely and the right...
Commission – General

Annual Report 2010-2011

I have pleasure in presenting the Annual Report of the Australian Human Rights Commission for the period ending 30 June 2011. The report has been prepared pursuant to section 45 of the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 and in accordance with the requirements of section 70 of the Public...
Complaint Information Service

Five Years On: An update on the complaint handling work of the AHRC

The Australian Human Rights Commission (HREOC) is empowered to investigate complaints under federal human rights and anti-discrimination law and to attempt to resolve complaints by conciliation, where this is considered appropriate. There is some variation in the complaint handling process for...
Complaint Information Service

ADR as a tool for social change: a discussion (2008)

Human rights and anti-discrimination law in Australia, as in many countries in the Asia Pacific, provides for complaints about discrimination and violations of human rights to be resolved by conciliation. The use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in this context has been criticised. In...
Education

RightsED - Young people in the workplace

Young people in the workplace contains a series of activities and resources to help students explore the issues around workplace discrimination. The activities help students to draw comparisons between the dramatised workplace issues and their personal experiences by looking at how concepts of...
Education

Commemorate Human Rights Day - rightsED

December 10 is the anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations (UN) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR sets out a certain set of rights that are the basic and minimum set of human rights for all citizens.
Education

Voices of Australia - RightsED

This education resource is designed to complement the publication Voices of Australia: 30 years since the Racial Discrimination Act. The publication is available at: www.humanrights.gov.au/racial_discrimination/voices.
Rights and Freedoms

Asylum seekers and refugees

Australia has obligations to protect the human rights of all asylum seekers and refugees who arrive in Australia, regardless of how or where they arrive and whether they arrive with or without a visa.