Open Letter to Prime Minister Howard and Prime Minister Harper
The Honourable John Howard MP
Prime Minister of Australia
Prime Minister of Canada
Dear Prime Minister Howard and Prime Minister Harper,
UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples:
It is time for Canada and Australia to end the opposition
This week the United Nations is set to take a long overdue step when it votes on the adoption of a new Declaration recognising the fundamental rights of Indigenous peoples. Amnesty International members throughout Australia and Canada call on you to make it clear that your governments are prepared to join the world in supporting its adoption.
In Australia, in Canada and around the world, Indigenous peoples are universally among the most marginalised and persecuted people on the planet. There is no question that concerted international attention is needed if these grave abuses are to be addressed. The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will be central to these efforts.
It has taken more than two decades to get this far. In June 2006, the first major hurdle was cleared when the new UN Human Rights Council adopted the Declaration. However, Australia and Canada joined forces with other governments and were instrumental in later blocking its adoption at the UN General Assembly.
Today an overwhelming majority of the world's nations have indicated they support the Declaration and are prepared to vote for its adoption. At long last there may be an international human rights instrument which delivers minimum human rights standards for Indigenous peoples. Canada and Australia should be among the global champions of this Declaration.
At this significant point in history, it is our hope and expectation that your governments will no longer stand in opposition to the Declaration. Indigenous peoples need your support, and certainly deserve no less.
Interim National Director
Amnesty International Australia
Beatrice Vaugrante
Amnesty International Canada
Comments
RR.Terry | Posted on 20 September 2007, 02:17PM | Report comment
I fully endorse the contents of this letter, and encourage Mr Howard to endorse this treaty even now! “Doing it my way” for the Indigeous people is not the best way. Let’s do it their way for a change.
Lace | Posted on 19 September 2007, 09:56AM | Report comment
I can not believe the Australian and Canadian Governments would want to to oppose such a positive step forward. It is vital these Governments join the world and support the adoption of such an important declaration.
Toni-ann Dowd | Posted on 19 September 2007, 02:04AM | Report comment
All Australians are equal I like to be able to tell fellow travellers how beautiful and wonderful are caountry is. It`s a shame when our own goverment can not say sorry or will not respond to the the rights of the first true Australians.
Jack Maghan | Posted on 18 September 2007, 06:29PM | Report comment
Shame on you both! I wish your children had have been stolen from you Mr Howard, only then would have known what the indigenous people of this country have been through!
Christine Stratigos | Posted on 18 September 2007, 01:16PM | Report comment
It is time, not only for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, but Indigenous peoples everywhere to be treated equally and with respect. Try being a visionary for a change Mr Howard, rather than perpetuating long-standing injustices make a positive difference by supporting the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
sean crockford | Posted on 18 September 2007, 12:39PM | Report comment
Here is truly an opportunity to acknoweledge the misguided blunders of our ancestors, children in the dark as they were, and to stand up now as adult nations with clear heads, free from guilt, and say, the way you have been treated is wrong, and we wish to make it right. To this end we are prepared to give over some of our power to a truly independant judge in case we, or powers yet to come should lose our way again.
Mandy | Posted on 18 September 2007, 10:18AM | Report comment
Until we recognise the rights of indigenous people and replace all that was taken away from them so long ago, we cannot claim ourselves a whole nation. The plight of indigenous Australians is at the heart of who we are and our response to this issue is a measure of the type of society we want to be.
Eileen Grichting | Posted on 18 September 2007, 06:36AM | Report comment
Having recently returned from a study tour in Brazil, I realised anew that the horrors still afflicting the indigenous people there have are not much different from those which happened to Australian and Canaian aborigines. (To say nothing of the native Indians in the USA.) Surely humanity is at last realising that human rights and land rights beling to all races and ethnic groups- that none of us have the right to displace and dispose of ‘the others.’
SCK | Posted on 17 September 2007, 11:57PM | Report comment
Did you know about the Certificate of Exemption in Queensland? It was abolished when indigenous people got the right to vote. If they signed the certificate it meant they were exempt from being indigenous and that they were not allowed to mix with their own kind. Another part to our sadistic history.
Elizabeth | Posted on 16 September 2007, 06:33PM | Report comment
The treatment of and policies regarding indigenous people in Australia (especially by our current government) has long been concerning me. Signing this Declaration would begin to make amends for the unwise and at times inhuman action of the government.
Louise Whelan | Posted on 16 September 2007, 05:41PM | Report comment
Why do the needs of ‘the economy’ come before the needs and rights of the people, all the people equally and inclusively ? The economy is supposed to serve the people not the other way around . I am tired of governments trying to keep us in fear and keep us consuming, I am sick of people being more interested in what their house is worth rather than just living in their house, if they are lucky enough to have one, and taking more interest in what happening to people around them and contributing to their communities as people , not individual financial units. Human rights needs to be be put before economies and corporations.
Margot Lloyd | Posted on 16 September 2007, 09:28AM | Report comment
I support the above
Henk G. | Posted on 16 September 2007, 02:40AM | Report comment
Reading the actual text of the declaration, I am deeply disturbed by the language in it. Most western countries already have a declaration of rights of some form; it is time and past to apply that equally to all people in the country, rather than making some people more equal than others, as this declaration would. Anything else will only continue to foment division and ethnic tension.
Kathleen | Posted on 15 September 2007, 04:24PM | Report comment
PM Howard,
Your Government’s refusal to progress and ratify this UN Declaration is a national shame. It demonstrates your failure to accept the realities of our country’s history since invasion and colonisation and address the marginalised/oppressed status of Indigenous Australians. You have stated that we can ignore this history, yet you embrace other aspects of our country’s history, eg Anzac, the Kokoda trail. It makes a complete mockery of the recent NT legislation that abuses the Constitutional amendment of 1967. It shows no commitment to addressing the impact of colonisation and ongoing individual and institutional racism perpetrated against Indigenous Australians.
As a non-Aboriginal Australian, I am deeply ashamed that Australia is presented like this to the world community - a ‘cut and run’ approach to Indigenous and human rights. Demonstrate integrity and courage, and support the ratification of this bill, as a minimal statement of Indigenous peoples’ rights globally.
diana newland | Posted on 15 September 2007, 09:59AM | Report comment
with john surely gone we must have a chance to hold our heads up high . will Robert Hill be withdrawn. I hope so
actually he may be able to change his spots
who knows?
Milton | Posted on 15 September 2007, 01:40AM | Report comment
Didn’t Mabo take care of most of this already? From what I’ve heard the recommendations are for separate laws for indigenous people, which will permanently keep them marginalized. The way to end discrimination is (partly) to treat everyone the same legally. If aborigines are seen as “different” or “special” then they will always lose out, because the majority will never discriminate positively toward a minority group, only negatively. That’s human nature.
David Pecotic | Posted on 15 September 2007, 12:40AM | Report comment
I am in full support of this UN Declaration and it is only just that the Australian Commonwealth ratify it. Morally, there is no other option; everything else is rationalization.
Jessica Nash | Posted on 14 September 2007, 11:51PM | Report comment
Telling people what to do and how to do it doesn’t work. We can work together and it is a good start from the top. Consutation and action for inclusion and recognition.
Anastasia Delaporta | Posted on 14 September 2007, 11:22PM | Report comment
The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People will finally give a voice to those who have been voiceless in their native lands.Your party has been in power for 11 years. Let this be the one positive thing it has done.
Jessica Dowdell | Posted on 14 September 2007, 09:00PM | Report comment
Mr Prime Minister, I find it hard to understand how you can lead a country filled with such diversity within its population and still appose a Declaration such as this. Can you not understand that unless our contury unites, unless we start to accept and respect the diffrent traditions of our indigenous people the issue of rasism and violence with in the community will continue. Don’t you understand that as the leader of this nation you have the obligation to begin this by accepting the declaration and put in to action its recomendations.