The Australian Human Rights Commission is Australia’s national human rights institution.

We are an independent statutory body established by the Commonwealth Parliament under the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986.

The Commission was previously known as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, and was renamed as the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2008.

The Commission’s structure includes a President and Commissioners, who are statutory appointees. The Commission sits within the portfolio of the federal Attorney-General and operates independently of Government.

The Commission’s work includes:

• Investigating and conciliating discrimination and human rights complaints brought by individuals.
• Conducting national inquiries to examine human rights issues and undertaking and publishing research into human rights and discrimination issues in Australia.
• Advocating to government and others for human rights to be considered in law and policy-making.
• Raising awareness of human rights in Australia through education and training, events and discussions, and media outreach.
• Providing advice to government, reviewing laws, and making submissions to parliamentary inquiries.
• Monitoring and scrutinising Australia’s performance in meeting its international human rights obligations. The Commission regularly provides independent reports to the United Nations about this.
• Intervening, with a Court’s leave, in proceedings involving issues of discrimination or human rights and appearing as an amicus curiae (‘friend of the court’) to provide specialist submissions in discrimination cases.
• Providing guidelines for employers, and providing training and resources to assist organisations in embedding and supporting diversity and inclusion, and addressing the risks of modern slavery in their global operations and supply chains.
• Conducting international education and training programs for other human rights institutions in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Commission publishes an Annual Report and non-financial statement at the end of each financial year. This report provides an overview of the Commission’s key activities, events, reports and programs over the previous year.

An index of the Commission’s Annual Reports can be found here.

The Commission publishes an annual Corporate Plan setting out the Commission’s purpose and goals, operating environment, and organisational impact with a four-year outlook. This corporate plan includes term profiles of the President and Commissioners and their individual workplans for the coming year.

The Commission’s Corporate Plan for 2020-2021 can be found here.

The scope of the Commission’s anti-discrimination and human rights work is defined by legislation, set out within these five federal Acts:

• The Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986, which articulates the Commission’s role and responsibilities
• The Racial Discrimination Act 1975
• The Sex Discrimination Act 1984
• The Disability Discrimination Act 1992
• The Age Discrimination Act 2004

Additionally, the Commission has functions under the Fair Work Act 2009 and the Native Title Act 1993.

The Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 gives effect to Australia’s obligations in relation to civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and fundamental freedoms under the following international covenants:

• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
• Convention Concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation (ILO 111)
• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Declaration of the Rights of the Child
• Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons
• Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons, and
• Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.

In addition, the National Children’s Commissioner and Social Justice Commissioner have functions that are referable to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The Commission is limited by statute and we are a federal body.

In addition to federal laws, Australia also has state and territory laws to protect people from discrimination and promote their human rights. Each state and territory in Australia has its own anti-discrimination or equal opportunity agency. Those agencies are:

• ACT Human Rights Commission
• Anti-Discrimination Board of New South Wales
• Queensland Human Rights Commission
• Equal Opportunity Commission Western Australia
• Northern Territory Anti-Discrimination Commission
• Equal Opportunity Tasmania
• South Australia Equal Opportunity Commission

The Commission’s Communications Officers can respond to requests for information, comment or interviews with Commissioners from media organisations.

Regrettably, we can’t accept requests for interviews or comment from school or university students due to resourcing limitations.

Our Communications Officers are unable to respond to general enquiries from the public regarding the Commission. These enquiries can be answered by the Commission’s National Information Service.

The Commission is unable to provide comment on individual cases of alleged discrimination or complaints that may have been made to the Commission. (See more on this in the ‘Complaints’ section below).

In Australia, it is unlawful to discriminate against people on the basis of their race, sex, age, disability, marital status, gender identity, sexual orientation, and a number of other protected attributes in certain areas of public life. Federal, state and territory parliaments make laws that outline what constitutes unlawful discrimination.

There are four federal anti-discrimination Acts (see 'Legislation' above). These Acts make discrimination unlawful in certain areas of public life, including employment, education, the provision of goods and services, accommodation, and the administration of Commonwealth laws and programs.

Discrimination is not always unlawful. ‘Positive’ discrimination is lawful when defined by federal anti-discrimination Acts which allow for ‘special measures’ that aim to achieve equality by supporting groups of people who have faced entrenched discrimination. More information here.

The Commission and its Commissioners are frequently asked to comment on a proposed piece of legislation, or a government or private sector policy, and asked for their opinion on whether it is discriminatory.

The Commission frequently makes submissions on proposed legislation and you can find these on our website here. We do not generally comment until we have had the chance to review the legislation.

The Commission can provide general advice on how federal anti-discrimination law might apply in a particular situation. However, we cannot comment on whether an individual case or conduct is lawful or unlawful.

Illegal conduct and unlawful conduct are both prohibited by law, but illegal conduct is a breach of criminal law while unlawful conduct is a breach of civil law. Australia’s anti-discrimination laws are civil laws, so it is correct to describe an act of discrimination as unlawful, rather than illegal.

• President Emeritus Professor Rosalind Croucher AM
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Ms June Oscar AO
• Age Discrimination Commissioner The Hon Dr Kay Patterson AO
• Children's Commissioner Ms Anne Hollonds
• Disability Discrimination Commissioner Dr Ben Gauntlett
• Human Rights Commissioner Mr Edward Santow
• Race Discrimination Commissioner Mr Chin Tan
• Sex Discrimination Commissioner Ms Kate Jenkins

Further information on previous Commissioners can be found here.

Commissioners are statutory appointees, whose functions and responsibilities are set out in the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986. The Commonwealth Attorney-General, who has portfolio responsibility for the Commission, recommends each Commissioner for their role. The appointments are made by the Governor General in Council.

The Commission President and Commissioners are generally appointed for a term of five years, and may be appointed for a term of up to seven years. They may also be re-appointed.

The roles of each Commissioner vary according to the priorities of their portfolio, but the functions of Commissioners are defined in the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 and in the four discrimination Acts.

Each Commissioner sets term goals that comprise the focus of their work during their term. These terms goals can be found in the Commission’s annual Corporate Plan (see 'Corporate Plan' above).

The work of a Commissioner can include:

• Conducting national inquiries to examine human rights issues and undertaking and publishing research into human rights and discrimination issues in Australia.
• Advocating to government and others for human rights to be considered in laws and policy-making.
• Raising awareness of human rights issues in Australia through media and public engagement.
• Providing advice to government, reviewing laws, and making submissions to parliamentary inquiries.
• Monitoring and scrutinising Australia’s performance in meeting its international human rights obligations. The Commission regularly provides independent reports to the United Nations about this.

Commissioners are unable to investigate individual complaints of discrimination. They are not involved in the Commission’s complaints service. Under the Australian Human Rights Commission Act It is the role of the President to inquire into individual complaints of discrimination. The President exercises this function through delegation to the staff of the Investigation and Conciliation Service.

Individual complaints can be investigated by the Commission’s dedicated team of conciliators. More information on the Commission’s complaints process can be found here.

Anyone can make an enquiry to the Commission if they think they have faced discrimination or would like to know more about their rights and responsibilities under federal human rights and anti-discrimination law. Some of these enquiries will progress to become complaints, but not all will. For example, in the year 2019-2020, the Commission received 12,554 enquiries, and 2,307 complaints.

The Commission accepts a complaint if it meets the threshold set out in section 46P of the Australian Human Rights Commission Act, including that it is reasonably arguable that the alleged conduct constitutes unlawful discrimination.

Investigating and conciliating complaints is one of the Commission’s chief functions, and is managed by a dedicated conciliation team. Commissioners are not involved in the process. Access to the Commission’s complaints service is free of charge.

The majority of complaints that reach the conciliation process are successfully resolved (in 2019-2020, 70% of conciliations were successfully resolved). Complaints that are unable to be conciliated may proceed to the Federal Court.

More information about the Commission’s complaints process is available here.

Complaints to the Commission can be made about matters that fall under the following human rights and anti-discrimination legislation:

• the Disability Discrimination Act 1992,
• the Sex Discrimination Act 1984,
• the Age Discrimination Act 2004,
• the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, and
• the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986

The Commission does not release information about individual complaints. Complaints to the Commission are confidential to protect the privacy of all parties involved, and to avoid interfering with due process if the complaint is unable to reach conciliation and proceeds to the Federal Court.

The Commission’s Conciliation Register provides summaries of resolved complaints with details de-identified. These can be used as illustrative examples of the nature of complaints conciliated by the Commission.

The Commission publishes annual complaints statistics, including numbers of complaints made under each Act.

The Commission counts complaints by complainants. Discrimination is sometimes intersectional, covering a number of grounds, and, therefore, complaints to the Commission may be made under more than one anti-discrimination Act. For example, a complaint alleging workplace discrimination may be made under both the Disability Discrimination Act and Race Discrimination Act. While this would be counted as one complaint, two grounds for complaint would be recorded.

The Commission’s media team is available to clarify any questions regarding the Commission’s complaints reports and statistics.

You can find links to the past five annual Commission complaints statistics reports below.

• 2019-2020
• 2018-2019
• 2017-2018
• 2016-2017
• 2015-2016

The Commission is unable to provide case studies to the media. However, our Conciliation Register (see above) may be useful.

The Commission’s powers to investigate a complaint are determined by legislation.

There are a number of reasons why a person may make an enquiry or complaint to the Commission that is not investigated, for example:

• It was not a matter falling within federal anti-discrimination legislation
• It was not in an area of ‘public life’
• It was not made to the Commission, but should be made to a state or territory commission

The Commission can call an inquiry on its own, or at the request of the Attorney-General.

An inquiry usually refers to the Commission’s s 11(1)(f) of the Australian Human Rights Commission Act function which is limited to acts and practices of the Commonwealth. In conducting an inquiry under s 11 (1)(f) the Commission has the power to compel information and documents.

• Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces 2021
• Free and Equal: An Australian conversation on human rights

• Change the Routine: Independent Review into Gymnastics in Australia 2021
• Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices): Securing our Rights, Securing our Future 2020
• Respect@Work: National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces 2020
• Willing to Work: National Inquiry into Employment Discrimination Against Older Australians and Australians with Disability 2016