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Rights and Freedoms
Race Discrimination
Commemorating one year since the Christchurch mosque attack
Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan and Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow have commemorated the one-year anniversary of the Christchurch mosque attack. In a joint statement, they said: “The Christchurch massacre was deeply traumatic for New Zealand’s Muslim community. That...
Race Discrimination
Submission on the draft Religious Discrimination Bill
The Australian Human Rights Commission supports reform to improve protections against religious discrimination for all people in Australia. While supporting much of the draft Religious Discrimination Bill, the Commission urges that the Bill be amended to avoid limiting other human rights and...
Rights and Freedoms
Free + Equal: Australian Conversation on Human Rights Opening Remarks
Opening Remarks Emeritus Professor Rosalind Croucher AM President, Australian Human Rights Commission Check against delivery Your Excellency, Dr Michele Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; Australian Human Rights Commission Commissioners—Dr Ben Gauntlett, Disability...
Race Discrimination
National Consultations with Australian Muslims
The Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan will today announce a series of national consultations with the Muslim community in Australia about their experiences of hate speech and violence and about their ideas for change. Commissioner Tan will make the announcement at a Harmony Day Event in...
Race Discrimination
Reconciliation Australia Barometer shows steady progress, but still work to do
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar AO and the Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan have welcomed today’s release of the Reconciliation Barometer. The survey conducted every two years since 2008, measures the progress of reconciliation between...
Race Discrimination
The AHRC and the Racial Discrimination Act: setting the record straight
Federal racial hatred legislation and the complaints-handling processes of the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) are currently the subjects of an inquiry by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. The Committee’s ‘Freedom of speech in Australia’ inquiry, due to report by 28...
Rights and Freedoms
Striking the right balance on free speech
Discover how a former Human Rights Commissioner was asked whether the Racial Discrimination Act impinges on freedom of expression under international law.
Rights and Freedoms
Another 'aberration' shows that 18C is the problem and must be changed
State and federal governments should reform laws that make offensive acts unlawful and refocus them on protecting free speech and stopping workplace and public harassment. This week a news story broke about a complaint made under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act by a Queensland University...
Race Discrimination
Forty 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...
Race Discrimination
40 years of the Racial Discrimination Act
Explore an opinion piece that celebrates 40 years of the Racial Discrimination Act by former Race Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Tim Soutphommasane.
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