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As most Australian children return to school today, they are being invited to share their stories about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their wellbeing, and how they have coped.

The travel ban on Australian citizens returning from India, accompanied by criminal sanctions under the Biosecurity Act, raises serious human rights concerns. The Commission supports the continuation of aid to the Indian Government as it copes with the current COVID-19 crisis, but the Commission holds deep concerns about these extraordinary new restrictions on Australians returning to…

Leading disability rights advocate Rosemary Kayess will give the 2020 Human Rights Day Oration today. Last year’s Human Rights Medal winner, and a contributor to the drafting of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Rosemary Kayess will discuss the social transformation of CRPD and the impact it has had on the community as well as her work with the Disability…

Australia’s National Children's Commissioner Anne Hollonds is urging governments and service providers to implement a new national toolkit to help improve laws and policy decisions and monitor their impacts on children.

Australia is the only liberal democracy that does not have an act or charter of rights at the national level, and there are currently very few legal protections for the fundamental rights of Australians.

Australia’s Age Discrimination Commissioner, the Hon Dr Kay Patterson AO, has called on the federal and state and territory Attorneys-General to act urgently to implement the Australian Law Reform Commission’s (ALRC) recommendations on powers of attorney at the COAG meeting on 27 July. The Australian Human Rights Commission has heard from lawyers, peak bodies and frontline workers of a sharp…

Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner has welcomed the Federal Government’s announcement of an inquiry into Australia’s handling of the COVID pandemic but has criticised the inquiry’s terms of reference for not having a specific focus on human rights impacts and for excluding the unilateral actions of state and territory governments. Today Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the…

Disability Discrimination Commissioner Dr Ben Gauntlett will join the management committee of Play by the Rules, the national program to make grass roots sports safe, fair and inclusive. Dr Gauntlett joins his Australian Human Rights Commission colleague, Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins (co-chair), and South Australia’s Equal Opportunity Commissioner Dr Niki Vincent representing…

The report identifies data collection and education on racism, and cultural safety as key themes. It also identifies media regulation, standards, and legal protections as priority areas for action. 

Kep Enderby Memorial Lecture: Racial Equality in the Time of COVID The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected Australia’s diverse communities. From the racial targeting of Asian Australians to the hard lockdown imposed on residents in Melbourne’s public housing towers, the pandemic has also raised questions about the place of diverse communities in Australian society. The Australian…