It was inspired by the Humans of New York Facebook page and was set up to celebrate Canberra's "human rights culture" while tackling issues of racism that emerge between the cracks.

Local champions for the campaign include 2016 Australian of the Year, David Morrison, professional tennis player, Nick Kyrgios, and Forum Australia president, Mohammed Ali.

Mr Ali moved to Canberra from Pakistan in 1991 and said the Australian capital was more tolerant than any place he had lived or visited, which included Nigeria, Germany, the US, Britain and France.

"We are so diverse that I am proud to live in this city," he said.

"I have been here 25 years and never have I had any problems. In my own street we have seven nationalities living together."

His work with Forum Australia involves promoting respect for social, cultural and religious diversity as well as freedom of expression. Mr Ali was recently awarded the outstanding Volunteer of the Year in the ACT Multicultural Award for his community contribution.

According to the 2011 census, nearly one third of Canberrans were born overseas, a fifth spoke a language other than English at home and 1.5 per cent of residents identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. Cultural diversity was seen as positive by 95 per cent of people.

However, research from the University of Western Sydney showed ACT respondents were never the least likely to have experienced racism and, compared with other states, were the most likely to have been disrespected based on ethnicity.

Prior to the campaign launch, human rights and discrimination commissioner Dr Helen Watchirs said a minority of Canberrans reported cases of discrimination, such as being turned away from clubs due to race.

But she said high profile champions and social media had been powerful tools in persuading people to look beyond the label.

The campaign's social media effort attracted 50,000 engagements from the Human Rights Commission's tweets since it kicked off on the United Nations International day for Tolerance in November. The #Diversitygoeswith had been included in nearly 60 tweets.

Dr Watchirs was keen to have mainstream supporters like David Morrison on board and said she expected some of the backlash he had copped since becoming Australian of the Year.

"Research shows that if you want to change attitudes you have representatives from not just diverse backgrounds but from the majority of the community, because they're the most likely to influence attitudes of racists," she said.

See the champion's profiles at diversity.hrc.act.gov.au and support the campaign with the hashtag #DiversityGoesWith