UN probing claims child-abuse measures breached Aboriginal rights
A United Nations representative is visiting Australia to investigate complaints that a government crackdown on child abuse in Outback settlements is violating Aborigines’ human rights.
UN special rapporteur on indigenous human rights, James Anaya, was requested by a coalition of Aboriginal groups, church leaders and social justice organisations to investigate a two-year-old federal crackdown on sexual abuse of minors in the Northern Territory, the coalition said in a statement today.
The federal government suspended its anti-discrimination laws to implement its response to a Northern Territory government-commissioned report in 2006 that found child abuse was common in remote Aboriginal settlements.
The government then imposed strict measures in 2007 aimed at protecting children from abuse.
Alcohol and hard-core pornography were banned from Aboriginal communities and indigenous inhabitants were forced to spend a portion of their welfare cheques on family essentials like food.
Activists say these measures violate human rights because they target Aborigines only.
“During my 12-day mission, I will investigate and report on the major challenges faced by indigenous peoples of the country in the enjoyment of their human rights,” Mr Anaya said in a statement last week. He was not immediately available for comment today.
The American professor of human rights law arrived in Canberra yesterday and will meet federal officials today before travelling to towns and an island Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory as well as other cities throughout the country, a UN statement said.
One of the coalition groups, Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, or Antar, said it wanted Mr Anaya to insist that human rights principles as set out in the UN Convention Against Racial Discrimination be applied.
The legislation that allows the so-called intervention suspended aspects of racial discrimination laws so measures could specifically target Aboriginal communities, enraging some activists who said this was unfair and breached the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous people.
Antar called on the government to reinstate federal anti-discrimination laws without “special measures”.
“We believe that the strategies that work will be ones which respect indigenous people and engage in genuine and empowering partnerships with them,” Antar president Janet Hunt said.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin’s spokeswoman Jessica Walker said today the government planned to introduce legislation to the parliament in October to reinstate anti-discrimination laws.
Soon after the government was elected in 2007, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised to Aborigines for two centuries of injustice since European settlement.
