| Email bulletin 1 March 2010 |
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+ + + + + + + + + Re - ALRM Nuclear Tests Fallout Community meeting in Kalgoorlie Unfortunately it is now not possible for the ALRM team to make it to Kalgoorlie in the immediate future for a community meeting on the Nuclear tests fallout issue. If you are interested to follow this issue up, please leave contact details with Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement of SA, in Adelaide: 08 8113 3700, Freecall within SA 1800 643 222, email < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it > Please forward onto people who may be interested in Kalgoorlie region. + + + + + + + + + MEDIA RELEASE For immediate use 3pm Friday, February 26, 2010 Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) has congratulated the Yaruwu people of Broome on their historic native title compensation agreement signed in Broome yesterday. “The Yaruwu agreement with the Western Australian Government is a fantastic achievement, with win-win outcomes,” said ANTaR National President, Dr Janet Hunt. “This agreement provides the basis for the Yaruwu people to advance their goals for the wellbeing of their people, while enabling Broome to expand as a tourism and industry centre, including with a new airport. “Back in the early days of Native Title the fearmongers were arguing that Native Title would halt development. This agreement demonstrates again that everyone can win when the rights of Indigenous people are respected and taken seriously. “ Dr Hunt noted that the Yaruwu people want to use the land and funds they are gaining to strengthen their culture and to improve the living standards of their people – to be on an equal footing with the rest of Australia. “This agreement also shows that the old argument about the rights agenda not delivering any practical outcomes is nonsense. Indigenous rights can be the foundation for Indigenous people’s economic and social advancement. “The Yaruwu people and the Western Australian Government are to be congratulated for their achievement.” Media contact: Dr Janet Hunt: 0408 170 448 (Canberra) Stephen Hall: 0408 426 263 (Perth) About ANTaR ANTaR is pre-eminent national advocacy organisation dedicated specifically to the rights - and overcoming the disadvantage - of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We do this primarily through lobbying, public campaigns and advocacy. ANTaR campaigns nationally on key issues such as Close The Gap, reducing Aboriginal incarceration, eliminating violence and abuse, constitutional change, racism and others. ANTaR's focus is on changing the attitudes and behaviours of non-Indigenous Australians so that the rights and cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are respected and affirmed across all sections of society. ANTaR persuades governments, through advocacy and lobbying, to show genuine leadership and build cross-party commitment to Indigenous policy. ANTaR works to generate in Australia a moral and legal recognition of, and respect for, the distinctive status of Indigenous Australians as First Peoples. ANTaR is a non-government, not-for-profit, community-based organisation. ANTaR has been working with Indigenous organisations and leaders on rights and reconciliation issues since 1997. For further information visit www.antar.org.au + + + + + + + + + [Aboriginal News] UN: Aboriginal program violates human rights By KRISTEN GELINEAU SYDNEY -- An Australian government program imposing radical restrictions on Aborigines in a crackdown on child abuse is inherently racist, breaches international human rights obligations and must be changed immediately, a U.N. official said Wednesday. In an advance copy of a report to be released next week, the United Nations special rapporteur on indigenous human rights, James Anaya, expressed serious concerns over the controversial initiative known as "the intervention." The program forced a series of tough rules on Aborigines in the Northern Territory - including bans on alcohol and hard-core pornography - in response to an investigation that found rampant child sex abuse in remote indigenous communities. "The measures specifically target indigenous people and impair certain rights and freedoms," Anaya, a University of Arizona human rights law professor, told The Associated Press. "It does impair self-determination of Aboriginal communities, their ability to make certain choices about how their communities are run." In August, Anaya traveled to several Aboriginal communities to hear residents' concerns. His conclusions and recommendations released Wednesday are part of a larger report Anaya wrote on Aboriginal issues that will be released next week. Aborigines make up about 2 percent of Australia's population of 22 million and are the country's poorest, unhealthiest and most disadvantaged minority. Governments have spent billions of dollars on community programs, housing and education reforms over the past few decades, but living conditions for the nation's original inhabitants remain abysmal. In 2007, a government-commissioned inquiry concluded that child sexual abuse in remote Aboriginal communities had grown to catastrophic levels, though it didn't provide actual numbers. The government quickly suspended its own anti-discrimination law - the Racial Discrimination Act - so it could ban alcohol and hard-core pornography in Aboriginal communities and restrict how Aborigines spend their welfare checks. The restrictions do not apply to Australians of other races. The measures are "incompatible" with Australia's international human rights obligations, including the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Anaya said. Further, he said, there is no proof any of the measures have actually improved the lives of Aborigines. "Have the alcohol restrictions actually reduced consumption? There's no evidence for it," he said. Anaya will present his report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva in September. Australia would be given the opportunity to formally respond then. Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin's spokeswoman Jessica Walker said in a statement that the government plans to roll out new rules for income management in July that will not discriminate based on race. She also said the government has introduced legislation that would reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act. "This Government's priority is taking action to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians and protecting vulnerable people including women and children," she said. In August, Macklin defended the intervention after Anaya criticized the program in an address to reporters. "The most important human right that I feel as a minister I have to confront is the need to protect the rights of the most vulnerable, particularly children, and for them to have a safe and happy life," Macklin said at the time. "These are the rights that I think need to be balanced against other human rights." Anaya believes there's a way to do both - by giving Aborigines a say in how they can best be helped. _______________________________________________ |
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