Unlocking Doors
Unlocking Doors: Muslim communities and police tackling racial and religious discrimination together
The Unlocking Doors, project which brought Muslim communities and police together to discuss and respond to incidents of racial and religious discrimination and abuse and has culminated in a forum, audit and report.
The Unlocking Doors project follows on from a previous Commission project titled Ismaﻉ - Listen: National consultations on eliminating prejudice against Arab and Muslim Australians (2002). Consultations were held with over 1,400 people to listen to increasing concerns expressed by Muslim organisations about the rise in anti-Muslim prejudice. These consultations culminated in a report published in 2003 of the same name available at www.humanrights.gov.au/racial_discrimination/isma/index.html.
Community consultations and forums were held in 2006/07 as part of the Unlocking Doors project in NSW and Victoria. These were facilitated by the Commission and funded by the federal Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Follow up discussions have been held in New South Wales and Victoria in 2007.
The key project goals were to:
- work with, and develop resources for, law enforcement agencies to better enable them to assist victims of racial or religious hatred and abuse;
- strengthen Muslim communities’ relationship with law enforcement agencies, and inform community members of the legal avenues and services available to them as victims of racial and / or religious hatred and abuse;
- identify specific issues for diverse Muslim groups (such as Muslims in regional areas, youth and women) so that police can take their needs into account when responding to claims of racial and religious hatred and abuse;
- help develop strategies that will better enable law enforcement agencies to deal with acts of racial and religious hatred and abuse against Muslim people;
- improve the extent to which acts of racial and religious hatred and abuse against Muslim people are monitored and responded to by police.
Click here for Report on a Dialogue between Muslim communities, HREOC and Police in NSW and Victoria and it is available for download in [PDF] (666 kb) [WORD] (234 kb).
Hard copies can be ordered from Commission publications at www.humanrights.gov.au/about/publications/index.html or by calling (02) 9284 9600.
Click here for Audit of Initiatives Related to Police and Muslim Communities and is available to download in [PDF] (234 kb) [WORD] (593 kb).
Click here for TRUST poster - police helping reduce hatred in the community
Video
In June 2006 the Commission held interactive consultations with Muslim community members in NSW and Victoria. Police were invited to attend part of the consultations. This video presents the views of some people who participated in these consultations.
- View transcript
- Click here to download and see the video of the forum (48 MB) titled Unlocking Doors in H.264/MPEG-4 format. (If you have any difficulties playing this video, please try using the latest version of QuickTime or VLC.)
