5 | Charting a way forward The workplace is another important context for education and training. Interfaith leaders should work with the AHRC, state and territory antidiscrimination commissions (such as VEOHRC in Victoria) or the Fair Work Commission to develop religious and cultural intelligence training for employees and employers. Customised programs may also be developed for workers who are particularly likely to need to deal with incidents of abuse or discrimination, such as security guards. In addition, faith leaders, government bodies and media organisations should work together to develop guidelines on media representation of religion and religious communities. A roundtable participant noted that there are very strong and well-supported guidelines about media reporting on issues such as suicide, which aim to reduce the negative effects of such reporting on vulnerable people. Similar guidelines could be developed to reduce the risk of serious harms on the basis of religion. 24 Finally, education should be targeted towards religious communities and people of faith to inform them of their existing legal rights, and the remedies available under current law. This is important as there may not be a clear understanding across religious communities of their rights and options for reporting harm. For example, VEOHRC found during recent consultations there was a low understanding among religious communities of their rights to make complaints to VEOHRC about religious discrimination or vilification including the differences between lower level harms and more serious harms that could be brought to the police.

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