Submission to the National Anti-Racism Strategy Public Consultation

This document is a submission made in 2012 by the APS into the Australian Human Rights Commission National Anti-Racism Strategy public consultation.

The APS submission provides an overview of issues important to the strategy, including defining key aspects of racism, identifying the health and wellbeing impacts of racism, and specifically addressing racism against Indigenous people and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities.

The submission addresses the objectives set out in the National Anti-Racism Partnership and Strategy Discussion Paper, providing recommendations for what the APS believe should be included in the National Anti-racism Strategy.

The submission endorses the establishment of a national partnership to develop and implement a National Anti-racism Strategy for Australia, and encourages the ongoing engagement of Indigenous and CALD communities in all parts of the strategy.

In particular, the APS urges, through the submission, that the legal or human rights framework within which the strategy is developed be strengthened, that the focus on racism be broadened beyond individual responses to racism to address systematic and institutional forms of discrimination, and that the health and mental health systems be identified as priority sites for action in combating racism.

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