Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission

Our goal is to foster greater understanding and protection of human rights in Australia and to address the human rights concerns of a broad range of individuals and groups.

HREOC’s responsibilities include:

• education and public awareness
• discrimination and human rights complaints
• human rights compliance
• policy and legislative development.

We do this through:

• resolving complaints of discrimination or breaches of human rights under federal laws
• holding public inquiries into human rights issues of national importance
• developing human rights education programs and resources for schools, workplaces and the community
• providing independent legal advice to assist courts in cases that involve human rights principles
• providing advice and submissions to parliaments and governments to develop laws, policies and programs
• undertaking and coordinating research into human rights and discrimination issues.

HREOC works closely with other national human rights institutions, particularly through the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions, to address major human rights issues in the region.

We also undertake bilateral international activities as part of the Australian Government's development program run by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAid). The most substantial of these is the Human Rights Technical Assistance Program, which is part of the annual Dialogue on Human Rights with China.

The Human Rights section has information on theConvention on the Rights of the Child (also see http://www.humanrights.gov.au/human_rights
/about_human_rights.html)

The complaints section has information for discrimination against young people (see http://www.humanrights.gov.au/
complaints_information/young_people.html)  

Our education section has a range of resources for young people (see http://www.humanrights.gov.au/education/index.html)  

Our age discrimination section has information for young people at http://www.humanrights.gov.au/age/index.html