The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) is a national independent statutory body of the Australian Government. It has the responsibility for investigating alleged infringements under Australia’s anti-discrimination legislation. According to its website, matters that can be investigated by the Commission include "discrimination on the grounds of race, colour or ethnic origin, racial vilification, sex, sexual harassment, marital status, pregnancy, or disability." The Commission falls under the portfolio of the Attorney-General of Australia. Private members, the Greens party and the Democrats party have tried to add "sexuality" and/or "gender identity" to this list above, which has always failed to pass at least one house of pailament since 1991 and still today because of a lack of support from Labour, the Coalition and conservatives in Government. The Commonwealth of Australia is a constitutional monarchy, a federation, and a parliamentary democracy. ... For other uses, see Race (disambiguation). ... An ethnic group is a group of people who identify with one another, or are so identified by others, on the basis of a boundary that distinguishes them from other groups. ... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Hate groups Genocide · The Holocaust · Armenian Genocide · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution · Gay bashing Blood libel · Black Legend Pedophobia · Ephebiphobia Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Ku Klux Klan National Party (South Africa) American Nazi Party Kahanism · Supremacism Anti... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Sexual harassment is harassment or unwelcome attention of a sexual nature. ... This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ... A pregnant woman near the end of her term Pregnancy is the carrying of one or more embryos or fetuses by female mammals, including humans, inside their bodies. ... Look up disability in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Attorney-General of Australia is the chief law officer of the Crown and a member of the Federal Cabinet. ... Look up Sex on Wiktionary, the free dictionary A sex is one of two specimen categories of species that recombine their genetic material in order to reproduce, a process called genetic recombination. ... This does not cite any references or sources. ... Conservatism or political conservatism is any of several historically related political philosophies or political ideologies. ...

Commission Presidents

• The Hon. John von Doussa (current)
• Professor Alice Tay 1998 - 2003
• Sir Ronald Wilson 1990 - 1998
• Hon. Justice Marcus Einfeld 1986 - 1990

Sir Ronald Wilson Sir Ronald Wilson, AC , KBE , CMG , QC , LL.M , LL.B ( 23 August 1922- 15 July 2005) was born on 23 August 1922 . ... Marcus Richard Einfeld AO QC is an Australian lawyer, judge and social activist who served as Justice of the Federal Court of Australia and the Supreme Courts of New South Wales, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory as well as the President of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity...

Legislation

The Commission investigates alleged infringements under the following legislation:

• Racial Discrimination Act 1975
• Sex Discrimination Act 1984
• Disability Discrimination Act 1992
• Age Discrimination Act 2004
• Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986

Public inquiries

One of the more visible functions of the Commission is to conduct public inquiries. Some examples of inquires conducted include:

• Same-Sex: Same Entitlements Inquiry into financial and workplace discrimination against same-sex couples
• Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families
• National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention
• Homeless Children Inquiry
• Pregnancy Discrimination Inquiry
• Inquiry into the Accessibility of electronic commerce and new service and information technologies for older Australians and people with a disability
• Inquiry into Human Rights and Good Governance Education in the Asia Pacific Region

External links

• The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission website