The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has found complaints relating to discrimination on the grounds of disability topped its annual list of complaints in 2018-19, accounting for almost 44 per cent of the total.
In 2018-19, the AHRC received 891 complaints about disability discrimination — a figure that has increased every year over the past five years.
President of the AHRC, Professor Rosalind Croucher said the figure was unacceptably high “especially in relation to employment and the provision of goods and services”.
She said a total of 2,037 complaints about discrimination and breaches of human rights were received over the reporting period. The organisation also conducted 1,396 conciliation processes, with 72 per cent of these complaints successfully resolved.
Professor Croucher said the conciliation service delivered practical, cost effective complaints outcomes that could provide significant benefits for the parties to the complaint as well as the community at large.
“For example, the commission resolved a number of disability discrimination complaints this year, which included agreements to modify buildings and adjust services so that people with disability could now access those services and buildings with ease,” Professor Croucher said.
The AHRC is Australia’s national human rights institution. It operates under the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 as well as Federal laws that seek to ensure freedom from discrimination on the basis of age, disability, race, sex, sexual orientation, intersex status and gender identity.
