3rd Thursday in March: Close the Gap Day
Close the Gap Day is a national day of action to pledge support for achieving equitable health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
In 2008, the Prime Minister of Australia signed the Close the Gap Statement of Intent at the Close the Gap Campaign’s National Indigenous Health Equality Summit.
The Close the Gap Statement of Intent includes a commitment to:
- Develop a comprehensive, long-term plan of action that is targeted to need, evidence-based and capable of addressing the existing inequalities in health services in order to achieve equality of health status and life expectancy, between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and non-Indigenous Australians by 2030.
- Ensure the full participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their representative bodies in all aspects of addressing their health needs.
Each year, Close the Gap Day is acknowledged in workplaces, hospitals, schools and communities around Australia. Anyone can take part and make a difference.
Note: There is a difference between the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, and the national Close the Gap Day. For a great, easy to understand explanation of the difference, download the Close the Gap and Closing the Gap - What's the difference fact sheet from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
Related resources
21 March: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed annually on the day that police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against apartheid "pass laws" in 1960.
In 1979, the United Nations General Assembly decided that a week of solidarity with the people struggling against racism and racial discrimination, beginning on 21 March, would be organised annually.
While an international framework for fighting racism has been developed (guided by the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination) it is still acknowledged that too many individuals, communities and societies suffer from the injustice and stigma that racism brings.
The United Nations General Assembly reiterated that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and have the potential to contribute constructively to the development and well-being of their societies. The General Assembly has emphasised that any doctrine of racial superiority is scientifically false, orally condemnable, socially unjust and dangerous and must be rejected, together with theories that attempt to determine the existence of separate human races.
