African Australians Project:
About the project
About the project
- What is this research about?
- What is the focus of the research?
- What is the research methodology?
- What if I don’t speak or write in English?
- Is there translated information available?
- Background papers
- Guide to the Racial Discrimination Act
- For more information
What is this research about?
The last 10 years has seen several conferences and reports directed at issues for African communities in Australia, most with a localised or state/territory perspective. The Commission felt that it was time to build on this valuable foundation, but also elevate issues to the national level.
There has been no national report that looks at the issues facing African Australians from a human rights perspective. This project will seek to address this identified research ‘gap’.
The aim of the project, African Australians: A report on human rights and social inclusion issues is two-fold:
- to explore the issues for members of African communities in Australia from a human rights perspective,
- to suggest solutions to issues raised and make recommendations to stakeholders to inform future policy, program and service design as well as public debate and education.
What is the focus of the research?
This project has investigated the support available to African communities and the issues impacting upon their inclusion, with particular reference to:
- Employment and training
- Education
- Health
- Housing
- Justice
What is the research methodology?
The African Australians: A report on human rights and social inclusion issues project comprised a number of components:
- background papers
- Discussion paper
- national consultations - interviews, focus groups, meetings with representative groups
- public call for submissions – seeking submissions (responses) from the public
- analysis of information gathered from the national consultations, call for submissions and research
- final report
- plain language guide – like an overview of the report
- formal review
- evaluation – as part of the CPHR program evaluation
You can find out more information about these components on this webpage and in the Discussion paper.
The Discussion paper has been designed to guide the national consultation and submission processes. The Discussion paper:
- provides background to the project African Australians: A report on human rights and social inclusion issues
- explains the aim and focus of the project
- provided a ‘Content for consideration’ section which expands upon the areas of focus for the project by specifying themes and listing questions as a guide for participants
- explained the project methodology and provide information on the project partners, governance and consultants
- outlined the project outcomes
- provided additional information in two appendices
- provided information on how to make a submission to the project.
Click here to download the Discussion paper in PDF 
or Word 
.
Is there translated information available?
Yes.
While information on the Australian Human Rights Commission's website is mainly presented in English, some information has been translated into the 10 languages below, to ensure that members of African communities have access to information about the project in languages other than English.
Summary guide translations
A summary guide of the 'In our own words' review paper has prepared and is available in community languages in audio and written formats
Discussion paper translations
Summaries of the Discussion paper are available below:
While we are aware that some languages are more commonly used as a spoken language rather than written language, we thought it was still useful to make translations available from our website.
- Amharic – download PDF or download Word
- Arabic – download PDF or download Word
- Dinka
– download PDF or download Word
- Kirundi – download PDF or download Word
- Krio – download PDF or download Word
- Nuer – download PDF or download Word
- Oromo – download PDF or download Word
- Somali – download PDF or download Word
- Swahili – download PDF or download Word
- Tigrinya – download PDF or download Word
A plain English summary of the Discussion paper has also
been developed.
Please note: Some of the Word documents require the appropriate language font to be installed to display correctly.
Background papers
Four background papers were written as part of the project. These papers set the scene and provide context to the issues, consultation findings of the final report:
-
Migration between Africa and Australia: a demographic perspective * - by Professor Graeme Hugo
-
Australia’s migration policies: African dimensions * - by Professor Andrew Jakubowicz
-
Human rights issues relating to African refugees and immigrants in Australia * – by Assocociate Professor Simon Rice
* These background papers were commissioned by the Australian Human Rights Commission, however each paper is an independent piece of research and reflects the views of the individual author only.
Guide to the Racial Discrimination Act
You may want to find out more about the Racial Discrimination Act:
For more information
For more information about the project, please contact:
Australian Human Rights
Commission
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001
Phone: (02) 9284 9600 or 1800 620 241 (TTY)
