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Report spotlights indigenous rights
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) has urged governments to do more to respect the rights of Aboriginal peoples in light of a new report on service delivery to the Northern Territory.
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Stephen Keim (pictured), president of ALHR, said the NT coordinator-general’s findings in relation to the decision-making of Aboriginal peoples and how this relates to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) were “concerning”.
“The NT Coordinator-General ... makes this link very clear,” said Keim, who called on both levels of government to consider human rights obligations under the UNDRIP when delivering government services.
“Government [should] reflect on their international obligations under the UNDRIP and ... work with Aboriginal peoples in the NT to promote and build representative institutions that will allow self-determination through self-government,” he said.
UNDRIP also requires state governments to consult and cooperate in good faith with indigenous peoples through their own representative institutions, continued Keim, who also pointed out that the report notes a lack of formal Aboriginal representation in key governance roles.
The report focused on four themes: transparency and accountability; the balance between crisis and development initiatives under the NT Intervention and Stronger Futures program; the lack of long-term planning and capacity development in Aboriginal towns, and the marginalisation of Aboriginal peoples in decision-making and resource allocation.
Also significant, according to Keim, is the report’s findings on the importance of culture as a social determinant of health, which, as outlined in the UNDRIP, protects the maintenance and practice of indigenous cultures.
Australia endorsed UNDRIP in 2009. A UN press release clarifies that as a General Assembly Declaration it is not a legally-binding instrument under international law but, according to the UN, it sets “an important standard for the treatment of indigenous peoples that will undoubtedly be a significant tool towards eliminating human rights violations against the planet’s 370 million indigenous people”.
