President's message | November 2024

Dear friends,

I’m pleased to share the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Annual Report 2023-24 which has been tabled in the Australian Parliament. In my first three months in this role, one of the things that has struck me is the breadth and depth of the Commission’s work. Our Annual Report highlights this.

One of the Commission’s core functions is providing access to justice for people who have endured human rights breaches and discrimination by investigating and conciliating complaints. Across the year, the Commission received 2,708 discrimination and human rights complaints and finalised 2,771 complaints. Complaint numbers rose significantly during COVID-19 and have settled into a new normal high rate which is around 30% higher than pre-pandemic complaint levels.

The Commission conducts important workplace and community education services. Over 8,000 people completed at least one of our free child-safe elearning online courses and thousands more completed fee for service online course. Almost 900 people attended in person education sessions and we also ran 20 workshops on tackling ageism which reached around 500 people. Our website, which is being redeveloped, provides important human rights information and received over five million visitors.

Our work to promote laws, policies and practices that comply with human rights standards was prominent and provided expert assistance to Parliamentary and other inquiries. We delivered 26 major reports and other publications and made 57 submissions.

We convened the successful Free + Equal conference which was attended by over 700 people. We also intervened in court cases to provide our expertise.  

We ran projects to engage children and young people in policy issues that affect them; to consult with affected communities about the impact of racism and how to prevent it; to amplify the voices of First Nations women; to consult with victim-survivors on how to address sexual harassment; to promote meaningful employment for people with disability; to build capacity in Laos to engage with the UN human rights treaty system; to promote safe, inclusive and fair workplaces for the Australian Federal Police, Australian Defence Force and the Australian Border Force; and more.  

Our new regulatory powers to promote compliance with the positive duty to eliminate sexual harassment, sex discrimination and other unlawful conduct came into force in December 2023. We established our positive duty team and compliance model and published education and guidance resources.  

I invite you to read the annual report. I thank the Commission staff and partners who have worked with us who have enabled the human rights progress outlined in this report.
 

Hugh de Kretser