Fed: Government in line for more criticism from UN ATSIC

AAP General News (Australia)
08-27-2000
Fed: Government in line for more criticism from UN ATSIC

CANBERRA, Aug 27 AAP - The federal government was likely to face more international
criticism for the treatment of Aborigines following its latest appearance before a United
Nations committee, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) said today.

ATSIC said the Australian government's submission to the committee examining Australia's
compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
was insufficient, piecemeal, lacking in focus and incoherent.

The commission lodged its own report to the UN committee which stated that indigenous
people in Australia were unable to enjoy their rights at the standards mandated by the
covenant.

So far this year, the UN's Committee on the elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
and its Human Rights Committee have both issued adverse findings on the Australian government's
treatment of indigenous issues.

ATSIC Commissioner Brian Butler said the 18-member CESCR, which heard Australia's submission
late last week, showed enormous interest in the relationship between Australian governments
and indigenous people.

"On the first day, committee members impressed us with their high level of awareness
of the issues in Australia," Mr Butler said.

"The next day, they were eager to deal with indigenous issues as soon as the meeting
opened yet the Australian government officials brushed aside further questions about disparity
and spent a lot of time restating the government's 1998 arguments on native title."

Mr Butler said comments from the committee members indicated the likely tone of the
report due late next week.

* Javier Wimer Zambrano (Mexico) questioned the Australian officials on self-determination,
rebuking them for hiding behind legal subterfuges to cloud the issue;

* Walid Sa'di (Jordan) asked for confirmation of a change in policy in 1996 with the
cuts to ATSIC's budget and suggested the government's explanation for the high level of
indigenous unemployment was inadequate;

* Maria de los Angeles Jimenez Butragueno (Spain) described the 1998 changes to the
Native Title Act as a step backwards; and

* Kenneth Osborne Rattray (Jamaica) said indigenous issues in Australia were highly
visible and that one of the fundamental tenets of the covenant was no regressive steps,
don't retreat from rights already in place.

AAP eg/cd

KEYWORD: INDIGENOUS ATSIC

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