We are excited to have kicked off 2023 with renewed funding and ongoing support from our partners and supporters. Read on for information about the campaign, promotional offers and ways to get involved. 

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

March 21st will mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (IDERD). This observes the day in 1960 that police opened fire on a peaceful anti-apartheid demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa, killing 69 people.

In Australia, this day is sometimes referred to as ‘Harmony Day,’ after being rebranded in 1999. While the political approach of recent decades has often been to promote harmony and inclusion, in the words of QLD Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall, this “can’t be the broom we use to sweep Australia’s ongoing and deeply ingrained racism under the rug”. Therefore, this IDERD, we encourage you to meaningfully acknowledge the harms caused by racial discrimination and strategise for change.  

We are preparing a standalone newsletter dedicated to IDERD for our Racism. It Stops With Me supporters. It will include downloadable, informative assets and suggested copy for you to use in your own communications to promote awareness with your respective audience, or to promote organisational events or initiatives you may be running on, or around, IDERD.  

In the meantime, if you’d like to discuss how we can work together to amplify the message of this important day, please contact antiracismsecretariat@humanrights.gov.au

Note- If you'd like to sign up to receive these Racism. It Stops With Me supporter updates via direct email, please scroll down to the very bottom of the page and enter your details in the 'Sign up for updates' section.

Spectator Racism resources win gold!

The Campaign Team is thrilled to announce that anti-racism resources created for the Spectator Racism Project have won GOLD at the 2023 Australian Design Awards. 

Released in 2021 in partnership with sporting organisations, anti-racism experts and our creative partners at Creatik Design, the Spectator Racism Project aims to support Australian sporting organisations to prevent and respond to incidents of spectator racism. Resources include guidelines, policy templates, posters, social media tiles and more, and are available for download here. 

Shout out to design partner Creatik Design for their incredible design contributions to this work!         .

Racism. It Stops With Me evaluation and next steps

Sincere thanks to all those who recently participated in the 2022 Racism. It Stops With Me relaunch evaluation survey. It was incredible to receive so much feedback from so many supporters, including 399 of you!  

This feedback is already playing a central role in helping us evaluate the campaign and strategically plan next steps to support increased racial literacy and anti-racist action across Australia.  

The Campaign Team is currently working with key stakeholders to identify activities for the coming year. This will include new campaign content, resources, promotions and more. Stay tuned for further updates in the coming months.

Update: National Anti-Racism Framework

Community Guide 

The Commission has been working on a community guide version of the National Anti-Racism Framework Scoping Report, tailored for individuals and community-based organisations. This is intended to be an accessible overview, communicating the findings to date and next steps in progressing the development of a national anti-racism framework. The community guide will be released within the coming months, so be sure to keep a look out! 

LinkedIn carousels

Since the release of the scoping report in December 2022, we've been elevating key themes and priority areas highlighted in consultations and submissions on the scope and vision for Australia's first national anti-racism framework through educative carousels posted to the Australian Human Rights Commission's LinkedIn page. We invite you to scroll through the carousels to learn more about these key findings. 

In the news 

The Racism. It Stops With Me campaign team welcomes the Federal Government’s announcement to provide a pathway to permanency for people who hold a Temporary Protection Visa or Safe Haven Enterprise Visa (TPV or SHEV).

If this applies to you and you need assistance with the process of applying for a permanent visa, we encourage you to attend one of the community information sessions hosted by the Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS). To access this service, simply register for a community information session in the language of your choice via this page of the RACS website. 

The RACS fact sheet on permanent Visas for TPV/SHEV Holders is available for download here. 

Sign up your organisation as a supporter of the campaign

To find out more about our organisational supporter program or to sign up your organisation, visit the ‘Support the Campaign’ section of the campaign website.

Note- If you'd like to sign up to receive these Racism. It Stops With Me supporter updates via direct email, please scroll down to the very bottom of the page and enter your details in the 'Sign up for updates' section.

The Guardian Opinion Editorial by June Oscar AO, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission

No more. We want an end to the violence. An end to violence of all kinds – of women and men, boys and girls, murdered and missing; of children taken away, locked up and harmed; of racism that directs anger and hatred at our bodies. No more! It must end.

These are the rallying cries of recent weeks. The words pouring out online, in social media feeds, across radio waves, news desks, reporters’ microphones and from the streets.

The tide of voices demanding change mounts. Like flood waters, in recent weeks, voices rise with each breaking story – of increasing rates of incarceration, violence against women and children, of police brutality. Revealing yet again the disproportionate levels of harm experienced by First Nations peoples in all reaches of Australia.

It seems like chaotic unspeakable tragedy, mirroring the current weather systems, and over and over the public asks why? But we all know, deep down, that these are the inevitable outcomes orchestrated by human-made systems never designed for justice.

I know these stories of harm against our peoples are coming to the fore because of the presence of First Nations women and men in the public eye. I thank them all for their tireless courage, speaking out, shouting into what can feel like a bottomless void. It matters – your voices. They, we, matter.

For First Nations people, these are not new truths.

We feel them in our own bodies. We all have sisters, sons, daughters and grandchildren who have struggled with trauma and abuse, who reach out for support and help, but too often there are no trustworthy services or resources available. We know firsthand what it is to be trapped in violent relationships with those who say they love us, but we have no housing to escape to, or finances to free us. We watch family self-medicate with drugs and alcohol, when there is simply nothing else to turn to.

It is structural violence. The devastating reality is that perpetrators of violence within communities are victims themselves, re-enacting the violence that they have experienced in a seemingly endless and often deadly cycle.

Children are taken away because of this. They are imprisoned at the age of 10 because of this, punished for expressing the behaviours of marginalisation.

This is not happening because our families can’t recover, or care for one another –there is so much love – but because there is nothing available to enable recovery. The cruel reality is that our society invests in and upholds punitive structures and institutions that re-perpetrate and compound traumas. Understandably, our people do not trust the services and institutions that too often imprison us and remove our children when we call for help.

The other truth is: we absolutely know what is needed in response, and as an alternative, to this current reality.

Australia must invest in First Nations peoples’ self-determination.

It is our 60,000 years and counting of rich, living heritage and culture that is the foundation for solution-making, and from which we can develop structures, institutions and economies formed by our kinship system and interwoven values of respect, love and inclusivity. Those are values to survive and thrive by, which for tens of thousands of years have guaranteed that all our peoples have been embraced and cared for, never excluded.

The question is: how do we move from knowing to acting and embarking on change?

In recent weeks the truths I write have begun to punctuate the surface of public consciousness, through Four Corners and other media reporting.

But it has been the loss of Cassius Turvey that has shaken the nation. All our worst fears made real – a child taken from our lives because of hate.

In Mechelle Turvey’s words – in a mother’s pain and love – we find the possibility for another Australia. She has called out the injustices of the present, condemning hate and violence, while bringing Australians together to grieve and honour her son’s life at nationwide vigils.

To realise that better version of Australia, we must all demand change.

The Wiyi Yani U Thangani – Women’s Voices – project that I have led is a part of this journey of connection and transformation. It has heard from thousands of First Nations women and girls who have spoken through pain and tears so their voices can be heard, their stories felt and shared – so that all of us may know we have a responsibility to make change happen.

On Monday the Australian Human Rights Commission released a report as another part of the Women’s Voices project – the First Nations Women’s Safety Policy Forum Outcomes Report. At the heart of this report is the deep recognition of the importance of First Nations women’s lives, diverse strength and knowledge in constructing societies of care, safety and wellbeing.

Again, it puts forward our women’s voices, their lived experiences, knowledge, expertise and stories. It sets out a pathway for how to confront and end violence in their lives. It details the steps required for designing effective plans and policies.

Our nation asks, in the throes of pain, what to do, how do we make change happen? I say, hold your humanity close and not at arm’s reach. Read, listen and respond to the voices of our women. Work with us, and let us self-determine the way ahead, because we know how to end violence for us all.