The Australian Human Rights Commission is the accredited national human rights institution (NHRI) for Australia. The Commission has a role engaging with UN human rights mechanisms, to promote and protect human rights both in Australia and within the international human rights arena. This section contains information on the Commission's bilateral and multilateral engagement with:

In 1993 the World Conference on Human Rights recommended that 

each State consider the desirability of drawing up a national action plan identifying steps whereby that State would improve the promotion and protection of human rights.

This was a result of an initiative by Australia, and was a concept principally developed by Mr Bill Barker of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Australia was the first nation to develop a Human Rights Action Plan.

In 1994 Australia was the first nation in the world to provide a National Action Plan on Human Rights. This Plan is now difficult to find on Australian Government or United Nations sites and so it is attached here in MS Word and PDF formats for convenient access together with a 1995 update.

A second National Action Plan for Australia was released in 2004 by Prime Minister John Howard and provided to the United Nations.

This Plan is dificult to find on Australian Government or United Nations sites. It is linked from this page in PDF and MS Word formats for ease of access.