'Human Rights Resources' for New Arrivals

‘Human Rights Resources’ for New Arrivals

Two English-language curriculum resources will developed to build greater awareness of human rights and complaint processes for new migrants from non-English speaking backgrounds.

The resources will include workbooks and a DVD that follow the experiences of Hayat, a Muslim Ethiopian woman, as she learns about HREOC’s services and its role to resolve complaints of discrimination.

This project has been in response to research conducted by HREOC, including findings from the 2004 Ismaع report. Many Muslim Australians say that are either unaware or hesitant about using existing services to resolve complaints of discrimination or harassment.

The project also addresses concerns that the general induction that people receive on arrival in Australia does not provide them sufficient information about human rights, race or religious discrimination and avenues of complaint.

ABS Census figures from 2006 show that 39% of Australia's Muslim population has arrived in the last six years, which means informing new arrivals about human rights issues is an effective way of reaching a significant proportion of the Muslim community.

These resources aim to address these issues by:

increasing awareness of human rights issues in a relevant and culturally appropriate way
building understanding of HREOC’s role to investigate and resolve complaints of discrimination and harassment.

HREOC is working in partnership with the Adult Multicultural Education Services, an experienced developer and provider of adult education for migrants.

The resources will be offered free of charge from 2009 to all providers of English language teaching under the Adult Migrant Education Program and available through the Adult Multicultural Education Services.

Find out more in PDF [43 KB] or in Word [55 KB] about the project or send us an email to register your interest.