Research Paper for Australian Human Rights Commission (Racial Discrimination Team): Developing a community centred, engagement framework for policy reform

Abstract

This submission examines existing literature on human rights-based approaches to guide the AHRC in the development of its Anti-Racism Framework. Specifically, it reviews available literature in five comparable jurisdictions: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom (‘UK’), and the United States of America (‘US’). For each jurisdiction, the submission draws upon sources on human rights-based policy co-design to identify, describe, and analyse demonstrated ways to meaningfully engage communities beyond the ‘usual suspects’ when pushing for reform. It provides insight into innovative approaches to policy co-design, evaluation mechanisms, evidence for success, challenges, mitigation strategies, and similarities and differences across policy making processes within Australia and comparable jurisdictions. These insights are organised in the form of an overview of human rights-based approaches including at least one significant case study for each jurisdiction.