Report Discrimination

Your rights matter. If you believe you have been discriminated against in New York State, you can report it to the Division of Human Rights. If what you experienced is covered by the Human Rights Law, we can help you file a complaint.   

Reporting discrimination to the Division of Human Rights is free, and you do not need an attorney to submit a report or file a complaint.   

As you go through this process, it is important to remember that: 

• The Division of Human Rights receives thousands of complaints every year, and it takes time for each claim of discrimination to receive the full and fair investigation it deserves. From the time an official complaint is filed, you should expect the process of investigating your case to take at least several months, and sometimes longer.
   
• Our investigators are neutral factfinders who represent New York State. They are not advocates for either side of a complaint and cannot give legal advice to any party.
   
• For acts of discrimination that occurred on or after February 15, 2024, you have three years from the date of the most recent act of discrimination to report it to the Division and file a complaint.

Here’s how our process works:  

As part of our intake process, we will ask you for specific details about what you experienced. Before you file a report with us, please take time to collect all the important details about what happened, including:

• The date the incident(s) took place. You may be able to find this in your calendar, emails, texts, or letters.
   
• The legal name and contact information of the person, people, or entity you believe discriminated against you. This includes their telephone number, email address, and/or home address. For companies or organizations, their legal name and address can often be found on a lease, a pay stub, tax forms, letters, or other official documents.  

If you do not have all the specific information we are asking for, that’s okay—just report the most complete, accurate information you have, and we will work with you to fill in the gaps. We will also ask for information about you, so please be sure to provide your legal name (no nicknames) and at least one way for us to contact you: phone number, email address, and/or mailing address.

Once you have gathered the information outlined in Step 1, you are ready to file your report. There are two ways you can file:

1. The easiest way to file a discrimination report is through our Call Center at (844) 697-3471. A Call Center agent will ask you questions about your discrimination experience and submit a report for you. This helps you make sure that your report is clear and complete. This will help the rest of the process run more smoothly. When you’re done reporting, we’ll email you a copy for your records.   
    
2. Another discrimination reporting option is completing the report yourself using our online Discrimination Reporting Form. When you’re done, you can submit it to us with a single click, and we’ll email you a copy for your records. Be sure to provide clear, complete information.    

Please note: The information you provide at this stage is not an official complaint yet. After you file a discrimination report, we will review the information to determine whether the incident you experienced is covered by the New York State Human Rights Law. This may take us several weeks to complete. If the incident you reported is covered by the law, then we will help you file an official complaint. 

FOR ACTS THAT OCCURRED BEFORE 2/15/2024: You must file your complaint within one year of the most recent act of alleged discrimination. If you were terminated, you must file within one year of the date you were first informed you would be terminated.   

If you are alleging sexual harassment in the workplace that occurred after 8/12/2020, you may file within three years from the most recent incident.

FOR ACTS THAT OCCURRED ON OR AFTER 2/15/2024: You must file your complaint within three years of the most recent act of alleged discrimination. If you were terminated, you must file within three years of the date you were first informed you would be terminated.  

If you prefer, you can report discrimination on a printable form that you can mail to us. Discrimination report forms are available in several languages. Learn more about how to report in your preferred language on our Language Access page.

If you are blind or a person with a vision disability, you can contact the Division at [email protected] to receive the report in an alternative format.

What happens next? Learn more about what happens after you have filed a discrimination report on our What to Expect page.