Amnesty International Secretary General in Australia
Amnesty International Secretary General, Irene Khan, will lead a High Level Mission to Australia between 15 and 20 November, 2009.
During the Mission, Irene Khan will visit remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory and meet with elders and community leaders.
Amnesty International has been monitoring the impact of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) on the human rights and lives of Indigenous people affected. Irene Khan will travel to the Utopia Homelands to meet community members and hear their stories first-hand.
While in Australia Irene Khan will also be launching her book, The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights, and will visit Canberra to meet with Federal Ministers and highlight a number of issues of concern here in Australia and in the region.
On Wednesday 18 November Irene Khan will address the National Press Club.
Irene Khan has been Secretary General of Amnesty International, the world's largest human rights organisation, since 2001. She is the first woman, the first Asian and the first Muslim to lead the organisation.
Comments
Deirdrev Finter | Posted on 24 November 2009, 11:18AM | Report comment
Hi Andrew
Yes, the intervention was set up to counter child abuse but has failed spectacularly in this. Children are still living in crowded conditions or are homeless on remote communities. Not one brick has been laid for a new house in the NT since the intervention in spite of millions being spent on administering a housing program. At the same time local community councils have been dissolved and large shires put in place - another experiment that is disempowering people on the ground and creating another level of remote bureaucracy. People are depressed and uneasy about the future - they feel like guinea pigs in a vast and unwielding experiment that has lasted over 100 years without the participants’ permission.
Andrew J S | Posted on 23 November 2009, 02:56PM | Report comment
Dierdre
You are of course correct, beureaucracy does believe its culture to be the norm and all others abnormal - but how else is it meant to function? Housing, material things have meaning in western culture - but not so much in aboriginal culture where if an item is unattended its not theft if you take it. Conversely places and locations do not have the same spiritual value to others that they do to aboriginals so their culture can often be unintentionaly disrespected. How can the 2 cultures possibly co exist with such stark differences?
I beleive the intervention came about because of child abuse - I have yet to see a better alternative.
Deirdre Finter | Posted on 18 November 2009, 08:16PM | Report comment
Hi Chris, I’ve been around and about out here for 20 years and I saw Ms Khan’s Press Club appearance today on ABCTV and she was spot on. Given her short visit I think that’s impressive.
Racism and poverty aren’t complex - but the reasons for them can be. People in remote communities now deal with several layers of bureaucracy and a system that believes their own culture is the benchmark and others are aberrations of the norm - particularly unknown others.
Chris Morton | Posted on 18 November 2009, 04:43PM | Report comment
What a joke a 2 day visiting wonder and knows all the answers.You know absolutely NOTHING about the Indiginous situation in Australia.The camps are dirty and filthy because its their choice.It takes Nil to keep a place clean and tidy and free from disease.Billions of dollars have been spent to no avail because they do not have a will to change.
Deirdre Finter | Posted on 18 November 2009, 03:17PM | Report comment
I work in a remote Aboriginal community in central Australia. The intervention was a racist and ill conceived operation. While local people have been ignored, children continue living in overcrowded houses or worse-in a car or under a piece of tin (it’s 43 degrees today!) We have no sewerage system, our child care centre operates out of a shed that would be unacceptable anywhere else in the country. Overcrowding and homelessness cause stress, violence, bad health outcomes and deprives children of an education when families are forced to move again and again. The issues facing people in remote communities are issues of poverty, not their cultural background. Aboriginal culture should be seen as part of the solution, not the problem. It’s time to start seeing this for what it is - it’s poverty and social isolation on a scale that is shameful in a first world country.
Abdul Malik Ghauri | Posted on 15 November 2009, 12:52PM | Report comment
Greatest people on earth today run the AI. But dearest humsn rights can be ensured only through strict birth control in 3rd world. Policy of 1 child for coming 30 years in 3rd world will save the world.Please do something for it.