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LOSS OF RIGHTS - the Despair of Aboriginal Communities in the Northern Territory
A submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination – Australia
Prepared by
Professor the Hon Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC
Michele Harris OAM
Georgina Gartland
July 2010
"There is certainly nothing dignified about losing your human rights as a human being, based on being an Aboriginal citizen," Yananymul Mununggurr
Aboriginal people in Australia are the oldest surviving culture on earth. They are a proud and gentle people, deeply spiritual in their relationship with the land and in their relationships with family and cultural heritage.
Over the last five years centralising policy moves by government have stripped Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory of their rights and their dignity. History has been ignored by government. The advice given to them by a former serving Minister for Indigenous Affairs is quoted in the Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Melarle, “Little Children are Sacred report,”
"And one of the things I think we should have learned by now is that you can’t solve these things by centralised bureaucratic direction...you need locally based action, local resourcing, local control to really make changes.
But I think governments persist in thinking you can direct from Canberra, you can direct from Perth or Sydney or Melbourne, that you can have programs that run out into communities that aren’t owned by those communities, that aren’t locally controlled and managed, and I think surely that is a thing we should know doesn’t work.” Fred Chaney (April 2007) Government’s failure to listen to and engage with Aboriginal people at the local level has led to implementation of policies in the NT that have only further disadvantaged those most in need of genuine assistance.
Some of the worst human rights violations in the Western world today are taking place in the Northern Territory of Australia. The need for Aboriginal people to be listened to has never been greater.
This submission to the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is in two sections. Part One provides a legal overview, an analytical discussion on the current issues related to Aboriginal rights in the Northern Territory which has been prepared by former Chief Justice of the Family Court, Professor the Hon. Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC (Articles 1 & 2). Part Two provides a framework within which the voices of Aboriginal people from across the Northern Territory are able to provide some insight into their desperation (Articles 1& 2,5d, 5ei, 5eiii, 5eiv, 5ev). It is in this way that the submission seeks to compliment the excellent Australian NGO Report. Quotations used throughout this submission have come from a range of sources. These include the transcripts of the government’s community ’consultations’ at Ampilatwatja, Utopia and Bagot Community, of June to August 2009. Quotes are also taken from a forum in May this year with two ‘concerned Australians’eminent elders, Rev. Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra OAM of the Dhurili People of Galiwin’ku and Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM of the Anmatjerre/Alyawarr people of Utopia.
Additionally quotes have been taken from a survey conducted with elders/leaders from 24 communities across the NT during the month of June 2010. Those elders/leaders invited to participate in the survey are those identified or acknowledged by community members as representing them. The same survey was carried out in the community of Galiwin’ku at the request of elders with all community members who wished to participate.
The participating communities included homelands as well as major centres and centres identified as future growth centres. Both surveys are to be found in Appendices 1 and 2. We would especially like to thank staff at Jumbunna House of Indigenous Learning, University of Technology in Sydney (UTS) for assistance with the survey.
A very special thank you is given to those communities who participated in the survey and to those who shared their deep concerns with us.
The Failure of the Rudd Government’s Aboriginal Policy
Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney (STICS) Forum, NSW Teachers Federation Building, 23-33 Mary Street Surry Hills NSW, Monday 29 March 2010
An Address delivered by Professor the Honourable Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC, Honorary Professorial Fellow, Faculty of Law, University of Melbourne
Former Chief Justice, Family Court of Australia
Professor the Hon. Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC, former Chief Justice of the Family Court
Senator Rachel Siewert, Greens spokesperson on Aboriginal issues (click here)
Launch of This Is What We Said: Commentary on proposed Legislation purporting to reinstate the provisions of the Racial Discrimination act 1975 in the Northern Territory
By Professor the Honourable Alastair Nicholson, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 9 February 2010
A Failure in Leadership? The reluctance to enforce human rights requirements in Australia
Archbishop Daniel Mannix Memorial Lecture, Newman College,
University of Melbourne, Tuesday 6 October 2009
An address by Professor the Honourable Alastair Nicholson, AO RFD QC.
Former Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia,
Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne
The Law of Customary Adoption: A Comparison of Australian and Canadian Approaches to its Legal Recognition
Paper delivered by Professor the Honourable Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC,
Founding Patron, Children’s Rights International, Former Chief Justice, Family Court of Australia, Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne
World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Convention Centre, Halifax Monday 24 August 2009
Legal Aid of Cambodia’s (LAC) juvenile justice project in the Battambang region.
The justice system in Cambodia lacks structure as local
authorities and police have very little expertise and
no basic legal knowledge of children’s rights or legal
documents. Once children are arrested and detained
by the police, they are typically “punished” in some
extrajudicial way if the offence is minor. If a child
is prosecuted and enters the court system, the lack
of a separate juvenile justice system condemns the
child to be tried in adult courts, under adult laws. If
sentenced to prison, the child will be incarcerated
alongside adult inmates.
All children in conflict with the law – and child offenders serving prison sentences – have rights under the Convention on the Rights of the
Child (CRC), an international human rights treaty that Cambodia has ratified and acknowledged in
the Cambodian Constitution.
Cambodia is therefore required to ensure that children in conflict with the law, and those already incarcerated, receive appropriate treatment as a right in order to meet international obligations under CRC.
Legal Aid Cambodia (LAC) is at the forefront of the struggle for children’s rights in Cambodia. This video gives you an insight into the magnitude of the work still to be done.
Bill Jackson CEO CRI
Projects in Tamil Nadu, India, supported by the Lasallian Foundation
Children Rights International’s Patron, The Hon. Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC, and a volunteer film crew visited Tamil Nadu with Paul Smith, the Lasallian Foundation’s CEO, to produce a film to help the Foundation raise funds for its children’s programmes in India.
These programmes work to assist child labourers, street children, and rejected and orphaned children to help them live safe and full lives.
5th World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights
World Trade and Convention Centre,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada,
23 – 26 August 2009
Children Caught in Conflict
Welcome from the Congress Co Chairs
The erosion of human rights and deprivation of liberty in times of adversity is often excused under the
guise of necessity.
The maintenance and enforcement of human rights has a real cost in time, in money and in vigilance.
The present times of economic concern do not present an excuse for the deprivation of liberty any
more than they provide an excuse to be indifferent about the future of our world in any aspect, particularly
in sustaining its capacity to support humanity.
The future of this world can only be assured by the maintenance of rage against injustice and in a determination
to so act that future generations will take to heart the example of this generation providing
in its maintenance and support of the rights of the individual.
In no area is this more important than in the maintenance and support of the rights of children, rights
which if respected in children will enable them to recognise and respect the rights of others as they
become the future adults and leaders. The growth of such respect in turn, will lead to a better world,
hopefully one less torn by conflict and uncontained greed.
The 5th World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights brings into congress again judges, lawyers,
legislators, policy makers, mental health professionals and all those associated with the domestic
and international recognition of innate rights. They come together to share knowledge to develop
policy, to identify injustice and to seek solutions which are both achievable and lasting. The Congress
is an instrument of not only the mutual education of its participants but also an instrument of public
education and for shaping public opinion and action.
We offer you a warm invitation to join with us in this Congress to add your intellect, insight and your
voice to the rigour of the debate and to the search with us for solutions to the problems of children in a
world of conflict and increasing deprivation.
Take the opportunity to join in the formation of the resolutions of the Congress and leave, at its conclusion
knowing that you have participated in seeking to make the lives of children the better for it.
Congress Co-chairs
The Hon Justice Rod Burr AM
The Hon Justice Stuart Fowler AM
Summary of necessary legal reform to achieve full prohibition
Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children
Prepared by EPOCH
Settings where explicit prohibition is necessary
home, schools, penal system, alternative care settings
Is there a legal defence for corporal punishment which must be repealed?
The near universal acceptance of corporal punishment in childrearing means that legal provisions against violence and abuse are not interpreted as prohibiting corporal punishment and provisions confirming a right to use “reasonable” punishment provide a legal justification for the use of corporal punishment. The following legal defences for the use of corporal punishment should be repealed/amended and the law clarified to state that all forms of corporal punishment are unlawful: New South Wales Crimes Act (s61), Northern Territory Criminal Code Act (s27), QueenslandCriminal Code Act 1899 (s280), South AustraliaCriminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 (s20), TasmaniaCriminal Code Act 1924 (s50), Western Australia Criminal Code 1913 (s257) and the relevant common law defences in Australian Capital Territory and Victoria.
SayNo4Kids is inviting everyone to sign an online national petition to remove pornography from childrens access and view in the public arena (e.g. milk bars, petrol stations, convenience stores etc.). Click on the link below for more information
Broadcaster abused young woman's basic human rights
The Chief Executive of Children’s Rights International, Bill Jackson supports the media statement below and is shocked by the broadcasters abuse of this young woman’s basic human rights
50th session of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Informational Notes on
Juvenile Justice related
issues
Defence for Children International www.dci-is.org
February 2009
The Committee on the Rights of the Child is the UN body responsible for monitoring the implementation, by States Parties, of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as its two optional protocols, namely: the optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict and the optional protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
Every year, the Committee on the Rights of the Child holds three sessions in January, May-June and September.
States Parties are expected to submit reports to the Committee on the implementation of the Convention. The reporting cycle is as follows: 2 years after ratification, a State Party has to submit an initial report. After this initial report, additional reports are due every
five years.
After reviewing the reports submitted by States Parties, the members of the Committee on the Rights of the Child address their concerns and recommendations in the form of concluding observations.
The 50th session was held in Geneva from 12 to 30 January 2009. During the three-week session, the Committee on the Rights of the Child considered reports on how the Convention on the Rights of the Child is being implemented in each of the following States Parties: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Netherlands and Republic of Chad, Republic of Moldova. Under the optional protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, members of the Committee reviewed the reports of Maldives and Netherlands. Under the optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, the Committee on the Rights of the Child considered the reports of Maldives, Republic of Moldova and Tunisia.
As on previous occasions, the International Secretariat of Defence for Children International attended the session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child in order to follow the presentation of country reports from Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Netherlands and Republic of Chad, Republic of Moldova.
Defence for Children International is happy to present the following information notes on
issues concerning juvenile justice. These notes are intended to provide the reader with
relevant information on the state of juvenile justice in the countries under review, in a
concise manner.
By John Pascoe Chief Federal Magistrate AO
International Conference on Child Labour and Child Exploitation, Cairns Convention Centre, Queensland, 2008
John Pascoe, AO is Chief Federal Magistrate of Australia.
Monitoring Child Disability
in Developing Countries
Results from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys
UNICEF and the University of Wisconsin
With recent improvements in child survival in many countries, and the adoption and entering into force of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, disability is moving up on the international agenda. The development and inclusion of children with disabilities is a UNICEF priority. The World Fit for Children presents, among others, the UNICEF goal to “Ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including equal access to health, education and recreational services, by children with disabilities and children with special needs, ensure the recognition of their dignity, promote their self-reliance, and facilitate their active participation in the community.”
Despite the global interest in child disability, relatively little is known about the situation of children with disabilities, particularly in developing countries. As a first step toward addressing this paucity of information, UNICEF recommended inclusion of a disability module, the Ten Questions screen for child disability, in its Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS). Twenty–six of the 50 countries that participated in the third round of MICS, administered in 2005–2008, included this optional Child Disability module. Results from 20 of these countries are reviewed in this report. MICS is one of the first surveys to use a single screen for disability across a wide range of countries. The results of this landmark survey have the potential to raise awareness about the number and situation of children with disabilities in developing countries.
Children's rights have gained greater global visibility through the almost universal ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Treaty bodies for other international and regional instruments, which cover the rights of "everyone", including children, are giving increasing attention to children's rights. In the same vein, human rights mechan¬isms, including regional ones such as the European Court of Human Rights, the European Committee of Social Rights and the Inter-American Commission and Court, have become more sensitive to children's rights. With this increasing visibility comes the recognition that children in every country of the world suffer widespread and often severe breaches of the full range of their rights - civil, political, economic, social and cultural. In many cases, children do not have adequate or realistic remedies for breaches of their rights at national level. Seeking remedy through inter¬national and regional human rights mechanisms, though on the increase, is not well-developed. International justice for children discusses the principles of child-friendly justice at international level and examines monitoring mechanisms and current systems of admissibility, determining how easy or difficult it is for children to gain access to them. This publication also identifies the obstacles to be overcome and proposes concrete ways to remove them through specific recommendations to governments, international organisations and monitoring bodies. This work is a solid contribution to making international justice acces¬sible, friendly and meaningful to children, thus ensuring that children's rights safeguarded by conventions are concrete and not just theoretical.
Kids abroad: ignore them, abuse them or protect them?
Lesson on how to protect children on the move from being exploited
By Mike Dottridge
Terres des Hommes
International Federation
This study focuses on the experience of young people who leave home and travel abroad to seek work or have a better life and also children who are sent away from home by their parents. It explorers initiatives which have had the effect of reducing the likelihood that such children will be subjected to economic or sexual exploitation.
The report sets out to go beyond identifying the vulnerable situtations faced by such children, by examining what techniques have proved helpful to children who move away from their families.
Connections, Child Family and Youth Services, The 21st Annual WJ Craig Lecture, Melbourne,
Friday 14 September 2007
Delivered By
The Honourable Alastair Nicholson AO, RFD, QC Patron of Children’s Rights International Former Chief Justice, Family Court of Australia
Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne
This paper discusses the future of social justice in Australia. The Honourable Alastair Nicholson suggests that an essential ingredient of social justice is the concept of justice. Many of us think of justice in the context of the law and the courts. It has obvious relevance there, but in his view it carries within it a much broader concept that relates to the common humanity of human beings and the need to treat them with dignity and equality. He regards justice as one of the most important values of any community and is the true measure of a civilised society.
Justice is a concept that we instinctively understand but sometimes find difficult to identify in words. It is not capable of a fixed definition but it is an ideal of which we are all aware. It has been defined as the quality of being just or fair and thus as being synonymous with fairness. However justice he thinks means much more than that.
LOSS OF RIGHTS - the Despair of Aboriginal Communities in the Northern Territory
World Trade and Convention Centre,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada,
23 – 26 August 2009
Australia - Country Report
Informational Notes on
Juvenile Justice related
issues
Trafficking in Unborn Children 
Monitoring Child Disability
in Developing Countries
International justice for children
Kids abroad: ignore them, abuse them or protect them?