Heroes come in all shapes and sizes
The Awards are your opportunity to honour and promote the work of our unsung heroes of human rights as well our more high profile achievers.
Help shine a light on the work of human rights champions who often go unrecognised for their efforts in advancing and defending human rights in Australia.
2023 Australian Human Rights Awards finalists
Women’s equity and racial equality advocate Juliana Nkrumah AM has been awarded the prestigious 2023 Human Rights Medal.
Other awards went to:
- Gabriel Osborne (Young People’s Award)
- Northern Pictures (Media and Creative Industries Award)
- Advocacy Tasmania (Community Award)
- Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia (Law Award)
A diverse array of people and organisations from across Australia were selected as finalists for the 2023 Australian Human Rights Awards. There were 260 nominations across five categories.
The award recipients were announced at a ceremony in Sydney on Friday 8 December, just two days before International Human Rights Day and the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. You can watch a recording of the livestreamed event.
2023 Awards finalist videos
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How to nominate
Nominating is easy! You can do it right here using the online form on our website. If you need help with other kinds of formats, please get in touch.
- Nominations are FREE.
- You can nominate yourself or the organisation you work for or a person or organisation you admire.
- People and organisations can be nominated in multiple categories.
Provide a breadth of information.
Tell us exactly why your nominee should get an award. What has the nominee accomplished? How has their work made an impact? What’s the broader context of achievements a or contributions? What prompted you to submit your nomination? Provide as much information about their achievements and/or service as possible.Keep it clear and concise
For your nomination to shine, it needn't be long. Aim for quality not quantity. And focus the work that’s specifically related to the reason you’re nominating the person or organisation.Provide supporting material
Supporting material such as photographs, newspaper clippings, and links to blogs/websites are great. But be sure these are relevant to your nomination.Nominations for the next Human Rights Awards will open in mid-2025.
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Criteria
In choosing the recipients for the Awards, consideration is given to the nominee’s achievements in the year prior to receiving the award, as well as their ongoing contribution to the advancement of human rights.
An individual, organisation or community group need only be nominated once to be considered. The number of nominations received per nominee carries no weight in the judging process.
To be eligible for nomination, entrants must have made an outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights IN AUSTRALIA in at least one of the following areas, and been active in this area between 1 September 2024 and 31 August 2025:
- Taking action to overcome discrimination or infringements of human rights within Australia
- Encouraging greater harmony between people of different race, sex, sexuality, age or ethnic origin within Australia
- Enhancing the rights of Indigenous Australians
- Promoting equal opportunity for people with a disability in Australia, or
- Increasing awareness of issues of injustice or inequality in Australia.
Eligibility criteria
- Nominees must be an Australian citizen OR have resident status and be living in Australia OR be an organisation or association that is registered in Australia.
- Self-nominations are accepted
- Unsuccessful nominations may be re-nominated in subsequent years
Category criteria
- People and organisations can be nominated in multiple categories.
- Nominations for people aged 25 years or under (as of 31 August in the Awards year) will be considered for the Young People's Award
- Eligibility is dependent on the award category and may be open to businesses, groups, organisations and/or individuals.
Judging criteria
Selection panels will consider the following when assessing and comparing nominations against the above criteria:
- Does the nominee contribute to the advancement of human rights issues in Australia?
- Does the entry provide specific examples of their contribution?
- Has the nominee been a leader in this area of work in their community?
- Has the nominee raised community awareness of the issue?
- Has the nominee been able to provide a network of support for the issue?
- What was the outcome of the nominee’s contribution?
- How effective was the outcome?
- Did the nominee overcome any obstacles to achieve their outcome?
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Past Human Rights Award recipients and finalists
Since 1987, the Australian Human Rights Commission (formerly the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission) has recognised the extraordinary contribution to Australian society of a wide variety of people and organisations committed to issues of human rights, social justice and equality through the annual Human Rights Medal and Awards.
Search the database of past Human Rights Awards recipients and finalists. Recipients and finalists are searchable by year and category.
A list of past Human Rights Awards recipients and finalists by year:
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2015
2014
1993