Unlawful discrimination Of the enquiries and complaints received by the Commission this year, a third (31 per cent, 1509) alleged unlawful discrimination. Unlawful discrimination by ground It is unlawful to discriminate against someone because of specified personal characteristics, such as sex, age, disability or race. These are called the ‘prohibited grounds’ of discrimination. This year, the most common grounds of unlawful discrimination enquiries and complaints were: a race and its associated grounds: colour, ethnic or national origin (30 per cent, 456 − racial disharmony and racial harassment complaints are also included in this figure) and b disability (30 per cent, 455). Although the number of race-related and disability-related enquiries and complaints was the same, the proportion citing race or disability grounds in the public and private sector was different. In the private, or business, sector, 32 per cent of enquiries and complaints cited race-related grounds (350), followed by disability at 26 per cent (277). In the public sector, enquiries and complaints containing disability grounds accounted for 43 per cent of approaches (189), followed by race, 25 per cent (110). Enquiries and complaints 2013–14 unlawful discrimination by grounds 28 Human Rights Commission