Australian Human Rights Commission Input to 2024 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights report, pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 47/21 31 March 2024 1 Introduction 1. The Australian Human Rights Commission (Commission) welcomes the opportunity to provide input to inform the preparation of the 2024 report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 47/21. The call for input is in relation to the intersectional discrimination against Africans and people of African descent, and advancing racial justice and equality through an intersectional approach. 2. The Commission is Australia’s National Human Rights Institution. It provides plays an important national role in the promotion of core human rights principles, including the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination. 3. The Commission’s submission draws on its recent and current work to respond to the following terms of reference from the OHCHR’s call for input: i. ii. 2 multiple, intersecting and compounding manifestations of systemic racism as experienced by different groups of Africans and people of African descent, in connection with sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, nationality, migration status, minority status, disability, religion, socioeconomic and other status; actions by States and others to advance racial justice and equality through an intersectional approach, including in relation to: the design, implementation and evaluation of laws, policies, programmes, action plans, special measures, processes and other initiatives relating to health, education, employment, housing, law enforcement and the criminal justice system, and other sectors Manifestations of systemic racism 4. In Australia, the 2021 census shows that 414,378 (1.6%) of Australians identified as being of African ancestry. The Commission notes that these figures may be an underrepresentation as race data is not consistently and adequately collected in Australia. 3