San Francisco Human Rights Commission

The San Francisco Human Rights Commission (HRC) is a charter commission of the City and County of San Francisco that works to increase equality, eradicate discrimination, and to protect human rights for all people. The HRC enforces City Ordinances and policies on nondiscrimination and promotes social and economic progress for all.

In 1963, the modern day civil rights movement manifested in San Francisco through demonstrations against hotels, supermarkets, drive-in restaurants, automobile showrooms and automobile repair shops which were discriminating against African Americans. In early 1964, Mayor John Shelley appointed an Interim Committee on Human Relations, which subsequently recommended to the Board of Supervisors that a permanent Human Rights Commission be established. In July 1964, the Board of Supervisors passed the recommendation, and Mayor Shelley signed an ordinance establishing the Human Rights Commission.

From 1964, the Human Rights Commission grew in response to City government's mandate to address the causes of and problems resulting from prejudice, intolerance, bigotry and discrimination. The Mayor and the Board of Supervisors gave the Human Rights Commission more and broader powers and duties to address these problems, and passed additional ordinances, which were implemented by the Human Rights Commission. In June 1990, the voters of San Francisco established the Human Rights Commission as a Charter Commission (see Section 3.699-5 of the Charter).

The San Francisco Human Rights Commission (HRC) is a department of the City and County of San Francisco [and County of San Francisco] that works to increase equality, eradicate discrimination, and to protect human rights for all people. The HRC enforces City Ordinances and policies on nondiscrimination and promotes social and economic progress for all. Some of the HRC's core focuses include:

The HRC also works in other human rights issues, such as combating human trafficking, hate crimes, and bullying. For more information, please visit the HRC website.

Advisory committees are an integral and vitally important component of the HRC, providing for community involvement and opportunity for in-depth study and exploration of issues. The Chair of the Commission assigns Commissioners and appoints members from the community to participate in these committees. The HRC currently maintains three advisory committees: the Equity Advisory Committee; the Local Business Enterprise Committee] and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender Advisory Committee. The Executive Director is Theresa Sparks.

HRC staff are currently working on a range of human rights policy issues all of which can be found on the HRC’s website. A snapshot of these issues include:

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