Commission on Human Rights
56th Session
20 March to 28 April 2000

Mr Chairman

I make this statement on behalf of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, the National Indigenous Working Group on Native Title and the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action.

Mr Chairman

We hold the view that international mechanisms provide a chance for Indigenous peoples to draw the world's attention to the ongoing struggle of our Indigenous peoples to have our rights recognised. The United Nations system allows Indigenous peoples to have a voice that is distinct from that of the nation states which may occupy or share our territories.

The work being done to achieve a Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and a Permanent Forum for Indigenous Peoples within the United Nations system is particularly important to ensure that human rights principles are universally and uniformly applied and that our unique rights as first peoples are recognised and protected. We therefore support these efforts.

Further, the upcoming World Conference Against Racism is an important opportunity to highlight the widespread and universal impact of racial discrimination on Indigenous Peoples around the world and the legacy of economic, social, cultural and political inequality and disadvantage that has been created.

Mr Chairman

We must reiterate that the right to self-determination is the fundamental underlying principle of the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The right to self-determination is fundamental to the enjoyment of all other human rights by Indigenous Peoples.

Despite the fact that Australia is a highly industrialised, 'first world' nation, Indigenous Peoples in Australia face similar problems to other Indigenous groups around the world. In Australia we face a lower life expectancy along with a much higher incidence of ill-health and higher levels of unemployment than the general population.

As well as facing severe disadvantage compared to the non-Indigenous populations, there is a continuing resistance in Australia to recognising Indigenous peoples as distinct Peoples and the original owners of the land and resources.

Australian Governments have successfully reduced our opportunities to exercise even those limited rights which are protected by law as identified by the highest court in the land. The amendments to the Native Title Act in 1998 incurred strong criticism from the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on three occasions, the latest being the Committee's 56th session in March this year. This Committee has repeatedly sought to draw the attention of the Australian Government to its obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. In the face of this criticism, the Australian Government has called into question the integrity of the Committee, and therefore the application of the treaty itself, and has decided to review its involvement with United Nations Treaty Bodies.

At the same time, two provincial government jurisdictions under Australia's federal system are facing international condemnation for their mandatory sentencing regimes that remove judicial discretion and that target our Indigenous people. Mandatory sentencing is totally at odds with the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody which were aimed at keeping Aboriginal people our of police and prison custody.

The Australian Government has moved further away from the process of reconciliation between Indigenous Peoples of Australia and the Australian community. A particularly blatant example of its attitude has been the divisive debate about whether the Stolen Generations actually existed - a debate fuelled by the Government's insensitive and divisive submission to a parliamentary inquiry about the adequacy of the responses to the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal Children from their Families.

Mr Chairman

We are talking about those hundreds of thousands of Aboriginal People and their descendants who were forcibly removed from their families and communities during 150 years of deliberate government policies to exterminate Aboriginal culture.

All this is happening within the context of the Australian Government abandoning the concept of Self-Determination as the cornerstone of its policies directed at Indigenous Peoples.

Whilst we support the efforts being made to ensure the interests of Indigenous Peoples are equally protected within the human rights processes of the United Nations, we are extremely perturbed that any government, such as Australia, can presume to have a superior position in the human rights system and can thumb their nose at the application of existing treaties and vilify the bodies which they have appointed, in ratifying human rights conventions and covenants, as competent to monitor compliance by States parties with them.

Mr Chairman

As Indigenous Peoples, we have show our good faith by continually reiterating our willingness to sit down with the Australian Government to look for solutions to these problems. But, in the face of resistance and denial on the part of the Government, we will continue to highlight our concerns to the international community.

The continuing deterioration of the situation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia means that the United Nations forums for Indigenous peoples become even more critical for the recognition of our rights.

Thank you

FAIRA Aboriginal Corporation
Phone +61 7 3391 4677 • Fax +61 7 3391 4551 • email letterbox@faira.org.au
Post Office Box 8402 Woolloongabba Q 4102 Australia
37 Balaclava Street Woolloongabba