Breadcrumb

Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (No. 125, 1986).

Country(ies)

Australia

Subjects (Classification)

Equality of opportunity and treatment; General provisions; Human rights

Adopted on (Date of text)

1986-12-06

Scope of text

National

Type of legislation (Type of text)

Law, Act

Original title

Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986 (No. 125, 1986).

Abstract/Citation

This Act establishes the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, consisting of a President, a Human Rights Commissioner, a Race Discrimination Commissioner and a Sex Discrimination Commissioner. Its functions include those conferred by the Race Discrimination Act 1975, the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 or any other enactment; examining enactments and proposed enactments; inquiring into any act or practice that may constitute discrimination or be inconsistent with or contrary to any human right; seeking settlements in such cases; promoting human rights and equal opportunity; and advising on matters related thereto (ss. 11 and 31). This Act sets forth the procedures applicable to handling written complaints of infringements of human rights (s. 20) and of discrimination in relation to equal opportunity (s. 32). In the Act, the term "human rights" means the rights and freedoms recognised in the International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights, rights declared by the United Nations Declarations on the rights of the child, mentally retarded persons and disabled persons, or those recognised or declared by any relevant international instrument (s. 3(1)). The word "discrimination" encompasses discrimination on the basis of race, coulour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, as more fully defined in s. 3(1). The ILO Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) is containted in Schedule 1 of the Act, which empowers the Commission to report on the action, if any, that it believes needs to be taken in order to ensure compliance with that Convention (s. 31(f); see also s. 3(1) and (8)).

Instrument(s)

C111 - Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958