The Human Rights Awards are a series of awards for achievements in the field of human rights in Australia, bestowed by the Australian Human Rights Commission at the Human Rights Day Ceremony in December in each year.
History The Human Rights Awards were established in 1987 by the then Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) "to recognise the contributions of individuals across the nation who made it their life's mission to champion human rights, social justice, and equality for all". The award began as an event to recognise human rights in film, television and literature, but covers a wider spectrum. Of the original categories, only the Human Rights Medal has endured.
In 2020, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, instead of the awards ceremony, ten "Human Rights Heroes" were recognised as finalists, including the Torres Strait 8 and Corey Tutt.
Past categories In 1990 categories included:
Poetry Award Drama Award Prose Award Film Award Songwriting Award Television Drama Award Television Documentary Award Radio Documentary/ Current Affairs Award Metropolitan Newspapers Award Regional Newspapers Award Magazines Award
The Literature Award, Print and Online Media Award, Radio Award, and Television Awards were discontinued in 2015.
In 2018 the categories included:
Human Rights Medal (Highest in this awards) Young People's Human Rights Medal (from 2008) Law Award Business Award Government Award (from 2018) Racism. It Stops With Me Award (from 2015) Tony Fitzgerald Memorial Community Individual Award Community Organisation Award Media Award Government Award (created 2018
Description , there are three award categories: Human Rights Medal Young People's Medal (for under-25s) Community Human Rights Champion
The Australian Human Rights Commission receives nominations for the Human Rights Awards and Medals categories, with the choice of recipient made by an independent panel. The individual Human Rights Award and Medal is awarded only to an individual who, to be eligible, must have made an outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights in Australia in at least one of the following areas:
Taking action to overcome discrimination or infringements of human rights within Australia Encouraging greater social harmony within Australia in a range of areas such as race relations, gender equality and the treatment of children and young people Enhancing the rights of Indigenous Australians Promoting equal opportunity for people with a disability in Australia or countering discrimination on the basis of age or sexuality. Increasing awareness of issues of injustice or inequality in Australia.
In addition, the entrants must be a lawful resident of Australia.
The awards are usually bestowed by the AHRC on Human Rights Day (10 December) each year, with a ceremony prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and announced online since then.
Human Rights Medal Recipients include:
1987 - Rose Colless OAM 1988 - Reverend Dorothy McMahon 1989 - Reverend Robert Ridley 1990 - Fred Hollows AC 1991 - Justice Michael Kirby AC, CMG 1992 - Eddie Mabo - Reverend Dave Passi - Sam Passi - James Rice - Celuia Mapo Salee - Barbara Hocking 1993 - No Medal 1994 - Roberta Sykes 1995 - Justice Elizabeth Evatt AC 1996 - Rebecca Peters - Robert Riley 1997 - Faith Bandler AM 1998 - Vivi Germanos-Koutsounadis 1999 - Helen Bayes 2000 - Rt Hon. Malcolm Fraser AC CH 2001 - Arnold "Puggy" Hunter 2002 - Michael Raper 2003 - Marion Le 2004 - Dick Estens - Deborah Kilroy 2005 - Kevin Cocks 2006 - Phillip Adams AO - Father Chris Riley AM 2007 - Jeremy Jones 2008 - Les Malezer 2009 - Stephen Keim SC 2010 - Thérèse Rein 2011 - Ron Merkel QC 2012 - Ian Thorpe 2013 - Sister Clare Condon 2014 - Dorothy Hoddinott 2015 - Peter Greste 2016 - Pat Anderson 2017 - Johnathan Thurston 2018 - Justice Peter McClellan AM - Chrissie Foster 2019 - Rosemary Kayess 2020 - No Medal 2021 - Larissa Behrendt 2022 - Mahboba Rawi and Nawid Cina 2023 – Juliana Nkrumah 2024 - Rosanna Barbero 2025 - William Tilmouth
Young People’s Human Rights Medal Recipients include:
2008 - Alan Huynh 2009 - Venay Menon 2010 - Jack Manning Bancroft 2011 - Tshibanda Gracia Ngoy 2012 - Krista McMeeken 2013 - Mariah Kennedy 2014 - Daniel Haile-Michael and Maki Issa 2015 - Yen Eriksen 2016 - Arash Bordbar 2017 - Georgie Stone 2018 - Saxon Mullins 2019 - Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts 2020 - No Medal 2021 - Chanel Contos
2022 - Caroline Cecile Fletcher
Tony Fitzgerald Memorial Community Individual Award Named to honour Tony Fitzgerald . Recipients include: (Link to other years from here.)
2011 Lola Edwards 2012 Pat Anderson 2013 Carolyn Frohmader 2014 Damian Griffis 2015 Ludo McFerran 2016 Jane Rosengrave 2017 Barbara Elizabeth Spriggs 2018 Catia Malaquias 2019 Jasmine Cavanagh
Racism. It Stops With Me Award Finalists and recipients have been:
2015 Tasmanian Students Against Racism (Winner), Football Federation Victoria, Multicultural Development Association, All Together Now 2016 National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters Council (Winner), Welcome to Australia, Beyondblue, All Together Now, Fadzi Whande, Hobsons Bay City Council 2017 Cohealth Arts Generator Sisters and Brothers Program (Winner), Clinton Pryor, Sean Gordon, ActNow Theatre and Reconciliation SA (joint), Multicultural Communities Council of Illawarra and Why Documentaries (joint) 2018 Nyadol Nyuon (winner), Mariam Veiszadeh, Welcoming Cities, E-Raced, ActNow Theatre and Reconciliation SA (joint) 2019 The Final Quarter, documentary film by Shark Island Productions (winner)
Business Award 2018: Konica Minolta Australia, recognised for its leadership on the issue of modern slavery. 2019: STREAT
Law Award 2019: Kate Eastman 2022: Jane McAdam
Government Award 2018: 2019: Armidale Regional Council
Community Organisation Award 2018: Australian Marriage Equality 2019: Just Reinvest NSW 2022: Andrea Comastri
Non-Fiction Award 1992: Katherine Cummings, for her non-fiction work Katherine's Diary 1995: Timothy Conigrave, for Holding The Man Colin Tatz, for Obstacle Race: Aborigines in Sport Media Award 2019: Jess Hill, for her non-fiction work, See What You Made Me Do, about domestic violence
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