There are two critical elements that together provide the framework for the Strategic Plan: substantive strategic focus areas and foundational strengths. There is an interdependent relationship between these two elements and together they can drive the OHRC towards its vision.
Foundational strengths form the basis for the OHRC to launch its strategic focus areas. In many ways, these strengths are informed by and reflect our values. They are the critical factors to achieving success at a daily operational level and also to achieving substantive results. Over the coming five years, the OHRC will focus on building and improving capacity in the following five areas, and monitoring and measuring our progress.
The OHRC’s ability and willingness to communicate broadly, clearly and in a timely way is critical to providing effective leadership that advances the realization of human rights. Our communications must be principled and accessible. Over the next five years, we will clearly communicate why and how peoples’ experiences are human rights issues. We will speak out about the human toll and cost of discrimination. We will retain capacity to respond strategically to critical and emerging issues across all Code grounds and social areas. We will provide human rights solutions.
We will do this by:
Our staff and leaders are integral to the success of the OHRC. Over the next five years, we will focus on continuing to strengthen our workplace culture and environment. We will enhance personal and organizational well-being and connectedness.
We will do this by:
The OHRC relies on our relationships with a broad range of individuals, groups, organizations and institutions, including government, NGOs, community groups and human rights duty holders (for example, employers, housing and other service providers). We will continue to strengthen our relationships with the other two pillars of the human rights system, the Human Rights Legal Support Centre (HRLSC) and Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO). The success of this Strategic Plan is not possible without engaging our collective commitment and expertise.
We will do this by:
The OHRC will situate itself to be a trusted and credible authority on human rights issues in Ontario. We believe in evidence-informed approaches to understand the state of human rights and systemic discrimination in Ontario and to evaluate our own work. People’s stories and lived-experiences are an important part of this accountability. We recognize the need to collect both quantitative and qualitative data and to be able to show our relevance and the impact of our work. Over the coming five years, we will promote an environment that champions and rewards continuous learning and evaluation.
We will do this by:
We recognize that our policies are principled and authoritative and provide the vital analysis required to promote and enforce human rights. We also recognize that it is critical for human rights policies to be translated into behaviours that meet human rights obligations. Over the coming five years, we will strive to ensure that policy is translated into practice by duty holders in a way that delivers a lived experience of human rights.
We will do this by:
The Ontario Human Rights Commission
Strategic Plan 2017 – 2022