The human rights of people who are in immigration detention are of special concern to the Commission. Liberty is a fundamental human right, recognised in major human rights instruments to which Australia is a party.
The Commission seeks to ensure that the human rights of all people held in immigration detention in Australia are protected. The Commission has focused its recent immigration detention work on the conditions and treatment of asylum seekers, refugees and children, because they have specific...
Prisoners, just like all other people, are entitled to enjoy their human rights. Prisoners can make complaints to the Commission about human rights breaches and discrimination that occurs in prison.
In 2007, the former Race Discrimination Commissioner, Tom Calma, had a vision to develop a human rights initiative based on the experiences of African Australians, to inform future policy and programs.
Governments have traditionally approached climate change as an ecological problem, or more recently, as an economic one. So far, the social and human rights implications of climate change have not been widely recognised. The effects of climate change may threaten a broad range of internationally...
The Australian Human Rights Commission’s (then known as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission) National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention was announced on 28 November 2001. The Inquiry was conducted throughout 2002. It received over 340 submissions and visited all...