By Cindy Trinh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania
SYDNEY, Australia – Aboriginal elder Richard Downs, along with various political and legal adversaries, has accused the Australian government of racism against the aboriginal people. Downs criticizes the NT Emergency Response (NTER) measures, stating that the measures have disempowered Aboriginal people.
The Australian government suspended the Racial Discrimination Act to permit certain measures in the NT Intervention, such as compulsory welfare quarantining.
In a press release from Downs, he demands that the Australian government heed to the advice of the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights, and end the NT Intervention. Downs criticizes the NT Intervention for taking away the “indigenous and human rights” of the Aboriginal people. He demands for equal treatment, and support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Furthermore, Downs states that the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act has taken away the aboriginal people’s rights to ownership and control of their land.
Professor James Anaya, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights, states that the intervention is “racist and discriminatory.” After his visit to Australia, Professor Anaya found that “compulsory welfare income management, land take-overs, and alcohol bans…failed to comply with Australia’s international obligations [and] would have been illegal had the Racial Discrimination Act not been suspended.”
A leading human rights lawyer, Julian Burnside, states that “the federal government must rework or scrap racist elements of the intervention program in remote indigenous communities and honor Australia’s obligations under international law.”
Burnside emphasizes that it “is essential that the directions provided by Professor Anaya be given serious attention.”
Michael Anderson, a leading activist for the Aboriginal people, calls for the reinstatement of the Racial Discrimination Act, and also demands that Section 51 of the Australian Constitution be deleted. This section gives the Australian government the right to make laws with respect to any race it deems necessary. Anderson claims that this section of the Australian Constitution gives leaders too much power and discretion to control the people, and is “without regard for public opinion.”
For more information, please see:
Intervention walkoff’s Blog – Press Release from Richard Downs – 12 October, 2009
Perth Independent Media Centre – Australian government accused of disempowering Aboriginal peoples – 09 October, 2009
Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation – Indigenous rights organisation welcomes UN report on Northern Territory – 28 August, 2009
