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RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)
Contents Vol 33(2)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Human Research Ethics Committees (HRECs) are essential in promoting our health and wellbeing

Summer May Finlay A * , Michael Doyle B and Michelle Kennedy C D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Health and Society, Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia

B Central Clinical School, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia

C Lowitja Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

D Faculty of Health and Medicine, University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

* Correspondence to: sfinlay@uow.edu.au

Public Health Research and Practice 33, e3322312 https://doi.org/10.17061/phrp3322312
Published: 5 July 2023

2023 © Finlay et al. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence, which allows others to redistribute, adapt and share this work non-commercially provided they attribute the work and any adapted version of it is distributed under the same Creative Commons licence terms.

Abstract

The history of unethical and inhumane research conducted on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people since colonisation highlights the critical need for specific Human Research Ethics for research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. The development of Aboriginal Human Research Ethics Committees (AHRECs) has played a vital role in ensuring research is safe and delivered for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in a way that protects and promotes their health and wellbeing. However, there remains a lack of appropriate and critical ethical governance for such research in areas without specific Aboriginal HRECs in each jurisdiction. This perspective argues that greater investment in state-based AHRECs and consideration of a national AHREC are essential to ensure the ongoing health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the research process –the ultimate aim of any research that involves them.