2. President’s Message: The Year in Review Our national human rights protections are patchy. Our human rights safety net has holes in it. This past year the Commission finalised its major Free and Equal Project to address the gaps in human rights protections for people in Australia. In December, the Commission delivered its final report Revitalising Australia’s commitment to human rights and in June, the Commission held the Free and Equal conference. The Commission’s Free and Equal reports outline a roadmap to better protect people’s rights in Australia through a new national human rights framework. Key recommendations include simplified and modernised anti-discrimination laws, improved human rights education and the establishment of a national Human Rights Act. Hugh de Kretser President The Australian Human Rights Commission is a vital national institution which has been promoting justice and human rights for Australians for close to forty years. It is an honour to write this message as the Commission’s new President. In December 2023, the world commemorated 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration lays the foundation for peace, prosperity and freedom globally and is one of the great modern human achievements. Australia played a leading role in drafting the Declaration and establishing the United Nations. Successive Australian Governments have signed and ratified the major international human rights treaties. Under our legal system however, people whose rights are breached cannot directly enforce these treaties or the Declaration under Australian law. Australia’s promises to the world to uphold human rights are not backed up effectively in Australian law. 6 A Human Rights Act will protect the rights of all people in Australia and help ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect. It will promote better understanding of rights. It will help to prevent rights abuses from occurring and give power to people to take action if their rights are breached. In March 2023, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus tasked the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights with a national inquiry into Australia’s human rights framework and laws. The inquiry had a strong focus on the Commission’s Free and Equal recommendations. In May 2024, the Committee published its report. The report indicated that there was significant community support for the Commission’s proposed reforms. The report’s recommendations endorsed the Commission’s models for both a new human rights framework and a Human Rights Act. Similarly, the Royal Commission into violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability endorsed the Commission’s reform proposals for federal discrimination law (as they related to people with disability) in its final report in September 2023. The Commission’s Free and Equal work, together with the reports of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights and the Royal Commission, provide the momentum and reform