UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People adopted - time for a new beginning
©AFP/Torsten Blackwood
Amnesty International Australia (AIA) is disappointed Australia was one of four countries which did not support the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples overnight. The adoption is a welcome step forward and AIA now calls on the Australian Government to work within the framework to address indigenous human rights abuses.
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was passed at the UN General Assembly on 13 September 2007, by a vote of 143 to four with 11 abstentions. Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States voted against it.
The Declaration has been under development within the UN for more than two decades, and was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in June last year. Final adoption by the UN General Assembly was stalled and further changes were made to the Declaration to address the concerns of some countries.
The adoption, which now becomes part of international rights, laws and standards, signals to the international community that Indigenous peoples rights are not different or less than the rights of other people.
Amnesty International Australia calls on all governments to work in good faith to put this long overdue human rights tool into action in their own countries. In Australia and all over the world, Indigenous peoples are among the most marginalised and persecuted people on the planet. The Declaration acknowledges Indigenous peoples, like all people, have the right to self-determination. It recognises Indigenous peoples' rights to lands and natural resources are crucial to their way of life.
Every day Indigenous peoples around the world face threats to their well-being and survival, and the passing of the Declaration sends a clear message this has to change. It is a historic moment.
Open Letter to Prime Minister Howard and Prime Minister Harper from Amnesty International members in Australia and Canada.
Comments
caro | Posted on 28 September 2007, 02:51PM | Report comment
The continuing racism in Australia is appalling as is the parochial attitude.Thanks AI for putting it on the agenda, particularly with elections due. We should make our local members aware that we would like Australia to endorse this Declaration and begin to behave like a mature signatory to The Declaration of HUMAN Rights.
Megan | Posted on 28 September 2007, 01:15PM | Report comment
For goodness sake krys - “THEIR” not “there”!! (does anyone else find it telling that the self-identified aboriginal has a better command of english grammar than the self-identified white proponent of racial stereotypes?) ;P
Why is it that white Australia tends to ignore or even be ashamed of our indigenous cultural heritage? It’s the oldest living culture in the world! After more than 2 centuries of systematic attempts to wipe their culture out is it any wonder that indigenous communities are so fraught with social ills? I mean, how can they be expected to be self-empowered when they have very little clear or positive sense of self to start with?!
It’s about time we all started adapting to and respecting our indigenous culture more. Maybe then we can start truly mending the damage done by centuries of oppression.
ruth trimboli | Posted on 27 September 2007, 11:20PM | Report comment
I doesn’t surprise me that Howard did not sign the UN declaration on the human rights of indigenous people. His record for upholding people’s rights is extremely poor.
sheila j.blundell-wignall | Posted on 27 September 2007, 07:54PM | Report comment
I refer to Margaret Reid’s last words.Surely it is not over yet?Good for you margaret!The fight for the freedom to voice our opinions and to have a hearing alongside Amnesty and Get-Up and Project Safe,especially in the case of the Indigenous peoples who are disempowered in such subtle and cruel ways,is NEVER over!Have you ever slept under the stars? It feeds the soul.Can you imagine locking up a person who’s people were so recently nomadic,that to die is preferable???.I refer Mr Howard’s penchant
for coming to the party when a silence of ten years duration ,about native affairs,has been the case,EXCEPT when an election is looming! So many wonderful people left in the wworld.Thanks folks.
Margaret Reid | Posted on 27 September 2007, 06:51PM | Report comment
Is it possible to find out (or work out) the reasons why this Government chose not to endorse the U.N.Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous People. Surely, the fight is not over yet.
Penelope Vassiliades | Posted on 27 September 2007, 05:10PM | Report comment
indeed! I should have said ‘Europeans ATTEMPTED to supplant existing cultures, economies, law’ etc
sheila j.blundell-wignall | Posted on 27 September 2007, 04:51PM | Report comment
I feel shame when this government speaks such utter drivel on my behalf.People who have the desire to know the truth of the basic differences between the Aboriginal’s ancient and proven culture,and our own materialistic and non- sustainable “culture” ;should make an effort get to know some of these beautiful Aboriginal children and those adults who are striving to retain and recover some of the aspects of their cculture which can bring some self-respect back and to retrieve the spirituality upon which their strength is built.We have to constantly deal with the misery this self-seeking government subjects those of us to who have any conscience left.It is to be hoped that a change of government will give us back our voice.Hail to fellow activists!
Penelope Vassiliades | Posted on 27 September 2007, 03:27PM | Report comment
and…i’m shocked and upset at many of the comments posted here. some commentators speak as though colonialism is a legitimate economic enterprise.Nevermind the theft, murder, rape and denial of humanity of Indigenous peoples. Of course there was ‘meaning’ before colonialism. Captain Cook came ashore with a gun in his hand!Europeans supplanted existing peoples and their systems of law, economy, and land use.White Australians’ relative privilege is not earned, it is a direct consequence of the original theft of land and exploitation of labour of Indigenous people.If this declaration goes someway to acknowledging and redressing this, anyone who speaks of a need for ‘equality’ should be behind it.
Penelope Vassiliades | Posted on 27 September 2007, 03:26PM | Report comment
Thankyou AIA for putting this on the agenda.I’ve been struck by the meagre coverage this has received in the Australian media. It speaks volumes about the widespread antipathy toward genuine attempts to address the rights of Indigenous Australians.The only policies that sit comfortably with the majority are those that pathologise Indigenous communities and recast white men and women as their benevolent guardians.
jim howe | Posted on 27 September 2007, 01:02PM | Report comment
my brother is a Canadian citizen, and I can assure Raymond that the current gov there is much the same as Howards and Thatchers. The Pm models himself on her.
The stated objection that the declaration would lead to two sets of laws in Australia is nonsense. There is one set of laws for the state and the first people can have their own law as well.
As to who owns what, did what and so on, we are all living here now and MUST work out a way to live together, South Africa shows the way, we could start with ‘truth & reconciliation.’ Then try a harder to help with health and welfare and education. In Canada, it used to be the case that all junior doctors had to do a spell in a first peoples area before proceeding with their career. As a new doctor in Australia I would be happy to do that.
Jusinta Collins | Posted on 27 September 2007, 10:44AM | Report comment
As an Aborirginal Australain I am saddeded that so many fellow Australains are not horrified as I am that Australia has not only refused to sign but has then also mislead the Australian public about what the Declaration would actually mean. But like Lisa expect no less from Johnnie.
Raymond | Posted on 27 September 2007, 09:29AM | Report comment
Does anyone know why Australia didn’t support it? Canada and NZ also did not support it, despite having fairly progressive Governments (compared to ours, very progressive!). Was there a major flaw in the wording or something?
tess | Posted on 26 September 2007, 02:24PM | Report comment
No actually one more thing! White colonisation is also the only thing that brought alcohol, high consumerism and excessive materialism as well as hundreds of other social ills to Australia. I’m not saying that we should all go back to 1788, just that it is important to try and understand the value as well as the problems of different ways of life to our own.
tess | Posted on 26 September 2007, 02:21PM | Report comment
Krys your comments about being unable to change the decisions of the prime minister seem slightly redundant in an election year…the rest of your comments I think have been effectively addressed by Arlou.
Arlou Arteta | Posted on 25 September 2007, 11:35PM | Report comment
In reponse to Krys: you are interpreting things from your “priviledged” white view that Indigenous people are supposed to be just like you. You are referring to demeaning stereotypes which are evident in mainstream Australia but you do not recognise the years of oppression caused by the WHITE INVASION.
Do you actually know any Indigenous people? They are amazing hardworking people and have been here for more than 40,000 years sustainably on this land and continue to survive even in such unjust conditions.
Here’s a tip krys type in google: Stolen wages, stolen generation, deaths in custody just to name a few damaging injustices and really read through the information with an open mind, it may be hard to combat your long standing views but try to understand that the past inherently affects what is happening now and what is going to happen in the future.
Indigenous people are continually being oppressed and viewed negatively by comments like yours.
Arlou Arteta | Posted on 25 September 2007, 11:19PM | Report comment
It was to be expected that Australia would vote against such an important declaration just like this.
We cannot consider ourselves to be the “lucky country” when Indigenous people are continually marginalised and oppresed in this country.
krys | Posted on 25 September 2007, 09:36PM | Report comment
white colonisation is the only reason this country has any meaning at this present time.
indigenous people have there rights, and they abuse them.
they use the fact that thye can gain benefits from the government by NOT getting a job, yet they are the ones complaining of not being treated equally?
maybe, if they bothered to look at how hard whites work to gain there houses, there cars, and there possesions. it doesnt just happen mads, its called work, and they just dont seem to want to accept the fact that because WE colonised the land, WE do have the right to own, what we have done to it, and the land it is founded on.
although they were the first to inhabit this country, we were the first to colonise it, we were the first to make it a sustanable country of this nation.
mads | Posted on 25 September 2007, 03:19PM | Report comment
Racism against Indigenous people is based on power, where as reverse-racism, as you say, is perpetuated by oppression. There are huge differences between the two. And I don’t believe that the indigenous peoples created their situation, I think it had more to do with white colonisation, the rape of a culture and an inherent racism that exists within pillars of this society.
Rach | Posted on 25 September 2007, 03:17PM | Report comment
Kris your comment is understandable and agreeable, we need to stop racism and start becoming mature and all be civil within our selves.
krys | Posted on 25 September 2007, 03:12PM | Report comment
indigenous people have created there own way of living, it is not OUR problem as a human society to change there actions.
it is THERE problem as themselves for creating the situation, indigenous people have more rights then caucasian people as it is, im not being racist , i’m admitting to the truth that this country has put forward its own issue then trying to fix it by creating more laws and rights for one specific race? that in itself is being racists against caucasians!