Australian Human Rights Commission staff say organisation’s position on Israel-Gaza war is inadequate

The Australian Human Rights Commission’s president, Rosalind Croucher, in 2018. Staff have written to her in an open letter over concerns about the organisation’s position on the Israel-Hamas war in Palestine. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

The Australian Human Rights Commission is facing pressure from staff over what they claim is an inadequate response to Israel’s war in Gaza.

Staff across eight of the commission’s teams – at least 24 of the 122 staff employed – wrote to the commission’s president, Rosalind Croucher, last week. The letter expressed “frustration at the commission’s failure to fulfil its mandate as an accredited national human rights institution in regard to Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank”.