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Learn how Racial Discrimination Act protects people from less favourable treatment because of their country of birth, ethnic origin, or skin colour.

The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 protects individuals across Australia from discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin. In 1995 the Act was extended to make racial vilification against the law.

Learn about the Racial Discrimination Act, which makes it illegal to treat people unfairly due to their race, colour, ethnic origin or immigrant status.

Under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 it is unlawful to do any act involving a distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on equal footing, of any human right or fundamental freedom in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life. The Act also prohibits offensive behaviour based on racial hatred.

The RDA was the first Commonwealth unlawful discrimination statute to be enacted and is different in a number of ways from the subsequent SDA, DDA and ADA. This is because it is based to a large extent on, and takes important parts of its statutory language from, the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination ('ICERD').1

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Learn about the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1966), one of the first human rights treaties to be adopted by the UN.

There is intense hurt and anger at being isolated on the basis of race and subjected to collective measures that would never be applied to other Australians. The Intervention was received with a sense of betrayal and disbelief. Resistance to its imposition undercut the potential effectiveness of its substantive measures.