Human rights violations outrageous -
Amnesty
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| Saturday, November
21,
2009 |
"In the heart of this first
world I found scenes more reminiscent
of the third world. That Indigenous peoples experience human rights
violations on a continent of such privilege is not merely
disheartening, it is morally outrageous. The moral imperative to
eradicate such poverty is no less an imperative on government than to
eliminate torture." Irene Khan.
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Amnesty International is calling on Australians
to write to
Jenny Macklin, Minister for Indigenous Affairs, urging the
government to replace blunt and blanket policy approaches with policies
that uphold the human rights of Indigenous people and the minimum
standards contained within the United Nations Declaration of the Rights
of Indigenous People to which Australia is committed.
The call to action comes after Amnesty International Secretary General,
Irene Khan, visited the Utopia Homelands last week - a group of
impoverished Aboriginal communities 350 kilometres north-east of Alice
Springs.
"For a country which,
by human development
standards, is the third most developed in the world and one which has
emerged from the global financial crisis comparatively unscathed, such
a level of poverty is inexcusable, unexpected and unacceptable."
She said the blunt force of the intervention's
heavy handed 'one size fits all' approach cannot deliver the desired
results.
"The Government will not secure
the long term protection of women and children unless there is an
integrated human rights solution that empowers peoples and engages them
to take responsibility for the solutions.
"Indigenous people in
remote Aboriginal communities deserve the same respect, safety and
protection as does any Australian.
"But this will not be
achieved in a sustained manner under the Emergency Response, which is
stigmatising and disempowering an already marginalised people and which
is in violation of Australia's international obligations."
Irene Khan's reaction is similar to that of
United Nations Special Rapporteur, James Anaya, who visited Indigenous
communities in August this year.
Speaking of the
Government's initiatives, particularly the Northern Territory Emergency
Response, Professor
Anaya expressed concern that its income management regime,
imposition of compulsory leases, and community-wide bans on alcohol
consumption and pornography overtly discriminate against aboriginal peoples,
infringe their right of self-determination and stigmatize already
stigmatized communities.
"Any such measure must be devised and carried out with due regard of
the rights of indigenous peoples to self-determination and to be free
from racial discrimination and indignity.
"As currently configured and carried out, the Emergency Response is
incompatible with Australia's obligations under the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, treaties to which Australia is
a party, as well as incompatible with the Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples, to which Australia has affirmed its support."
Amnesty commended the Government for creating opportunities to reset
its relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
through the apology to the Stolen Generation and the formal support of the
UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.
But Amnesty says the pathway out of poverty and
discrimination is only possible through an approach that has human
rights principles at its core and that empowers and engages Indigenous
communities to take responsibility for the solutions
More than 45,000 Aboriginal people are still subject to racially
discriminatory measures, including compulsory quarantining of social
security payments, as a result of the Government's Northern Territory
Emergency Response, or "Intervention".
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