Australia On UN's Black List

Australian Racism And Human Rights Abuses Of Aborigines Condemned

May 13, 2006

Since 1999, the Australian Government has been on CERD's agenda of urgent business, but the government has categorically failed to acknowledge this.

On 18 March 1999, CERD (the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination) announced shameful findings against the Australian Government. This was the first time ever the committee had cause to be critical of a Western country. The committee was particularly concerned that the 1998 Native Title amendments were racially discriminatory, as they rendered the 1993 act impotent and created certainty for Federal and State governments and third parties (ie pastoralists and miners) at the expense of Indigenous peoples.

For those who don't know, the 1993 Act was to recognise and protect native title, but the 1998 amendments (after the High Court Wik decision which recognised further land rights of Aborigines), were about extinguishing Indigenous rights and interests. I'm sure everybody in Australia would remember Treasurer Costello's outraged cry of, "There will be bucketloads of extinguishment!" CERD was also concerned that Aboriginal people had not been involved in drafting the amendments.

How did all this come about? Well, on 1-2 March 2005, CERD met with the Australian Government in Geneva to assess the Government's performance of obligations under the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The government did not stand up well to scrutiny. In its concluding comments released on 11 March 2005, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination raised serious concerns about a number of issues in Australia.

In particular, the Committee expressed concern about the abolishment of ATSIC (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission); the practical barriers Indigenous peoples now face (since 1998) in succeeding in claims for native title; the continuing over-representation of Indigenous peoples in prisons; and the extreme inequities between Indigenous peoples and others in the areas of employment, housing, longevity, education and income.

The UN Committee has called on the Australian Government to work towards a meaningful reconciliation and to properly address the issues of the Stolen Generation, with no response.

I got a letter the other day from our government, showing graphs and statistics about how much economic improvement and "growth" it has achieved in its term. I spat on that letter. How is it "growth" to deny the rights of Indigenous peoples despite global condemnation, while continuing to destroy the environment and render native species extinct? I see no growth here. History will condemn these people - hell, history is condemning them now through these UN reports. However, I don't think they really care. I think they are aware that the global destruction they are causing in their greed is ensuring that there will be no future history in which they might be condemned...

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