Australian Human Rights Commission

Not to be confused with Australian Human Rights Institute.
"Equal Opportunity Commission" redirects here. For the United States' Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, see Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. For similar uses, see Equal Opportunities Commission.

Australian Human Rights Commission
Commission overview
Formed1981 (1981) (Human Rights Commission)
1986 (1986) (HREOC)
Preceding commission
  • Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
JurisdictionAustralia
HeadquartersSydney
Employees126
Minister responsible
Commission executives
  • Hugh de Kretser, President
  • Katie Kiss, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner
  • Rosemary Kayess, Disability Discrimination Commissioner
  • Lorraine Finlay, Human Rights Commissioner
  • Giridharan Sivaraman, Race Discrimination Commissioner
  • Anna Cody, Sex Discrimination Commissioner
  • Robert Fitzgerald, Age Discrimination Commissioner
Key documents
Websitehumanrights.gov.au

The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is the national human rights institution of the Commonwealth of Australia. It is a statutory body funded by, but operating independently of, the Australian Government. It is responsible for investigating alleged infringements of Australia's anti-discrimination legislation in relation to federal agencies.

The AHRC was established in 1986 as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC), which replaced an earlier Human Rights Commission (HRC) established in 1981. The primary governing legislation for the commission is the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986, but the commission also has powers under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, and the Age Discrimination Act 2004. Matters that can be investigated by the commission under the Australian Human Rights Commission Regulations 2019 include discrimination on the grounds of age, medical record, an irrelevant criminal record; disability; marital or relationship status; nationality; sexual orientation; or trade union activity.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.