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AUSTRALIA: Aboriginal allegations against government investigated
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CLAIMS: Groups say human rights have been breached
THE UNITED Nations’ special rapporteur on indigenous human rights is looking into claims from Aborigines that the country’s government has breached their human rights by suspending anti-discrimination laws to investigate them for child abuse.
James Anaya, a US professor of human rights law, reportedly arrived in the country on August 16.
He said in a statement he is spending 12 days visiting Aboriginal communities to ‘investigate and report on the major challenges faced by indigenous peoples of the country in the enjoyment of their human rights.’
The government partly suspended the laws in 2007, stating that it was investigating child abuse, following national research finding that Aboriginal children are six times as likely to be abused than non-indigenous children.
But Aboriginal groups, church organisations and human rights activists have branded the intervention into Aboriginal communities as racially discriminatory, the BBC said.
"We believe that the strategies that work will be ones which respect indigenous people and engage in genuine and empowering partnerships with them," Janet Hunt, the president of Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, told the BBC.
The Australian government said it planned to reinstate the anti-discrimination laws in October.
Published: 23 August 2009
Issue: 1386
