HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE STARTS CONSIDERATION OF REPORT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS IN AUSTRALIA

Press Release
HR/CT/580

HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE STARTS CONSIDERATION OF REPORT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS IN AUSTRALIA

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 20 July (UN Information Service) -- The Human Rights Committee this afternoon started reviewing a report by the Government of Australia on its efforts to implement the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Introducing the third and fourth periodic reports, Leslie Luck, Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations Office at Geneva, said Australians were drawn from many cultures, importantly from those of the indigenous people and of migrants from over 130 countries. However, the Government recognized that indigenous people were disadvantaged within the Australian community, largely as a result of the effects of European settlement.

Over the course of their consideration of the report, several experts commented on the absence of legislation in Australian law to incorporate international treaties; and they also focused on the past assimilation policy which separated many indigenous children from their families. The exclusion of Aboriginal people from the wealth and life of the society was also highlighted during the discussion.

The Australian delegation was also made up of Bill Campbell, First Secretary, and Renee Leon, Assistant Secretary at the Attorney General's Department; John van Beurden, Assistant Secretary, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet; and Robyn Bicket, Eric van der Wal, and Jennifer Meehan, from the Australian Permanent Mission at Geneva.

Australia is among the 145 States parties to the Covenant and as such it must submit periodic reports to the Committee on its performance to implement the provisions of the treaty.

When the Committee reconvenes at 10 p.m. on Friday, 21 July, it will continue to review the report of Australia.

Report of Australia

The third and fourth periodic reports of Australia (documents CCPR/C/AUS/98/3+4) enumerate the progress made in the achievement of the rights enshrined under the Covenant. The third periodic report says that given the considerable development in the country's human rights protection over the past

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years, the Government has chosen to present the report as a comprehensive account of the legislation and administration changes relevant to each article of the Covenant. The report further says that the period under review saw a number of significant developments in the way in which Australia gives effect to the rights recognized in the Covenant.

The third periodic report says that 34 indigenous and 193 non-indigenous people, a total of 227 people, were reported to have died in police and prison custody and juvenile detention in Australia since May 1991. Preliminary data for the period to the end of 1995 indicates an increase in the number of Aboriginal deaths in all forms of custody.

The fourth periodic report says that on 4 December 1996, the Government introduced in the Federal parliament a human rights legislation amendment bill. The bill is intended to amend federal anti-discrimination legislation and to reform the functions and structure of the human rights and equal opportunity commission which is the body to which complaints of discrimination alleging breach of federal discrimination laws are made. The report also enumerates developments made in each state of Australia during the past years.

Presentation of Report

LESLIE LUCK, Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations Office at Geneva, affirmed that his country had a high level of acceptance, protection and observance of human rights. That respect for human rights was based on Australia's liberal, democratic system of representative and responsible Government, an independent judiciary, respect for the rule of law, a free press and the tolerance and openness of the people themselves.

Australians were drawn from many cultures, importantly from those of the indigenous people and of migrants from over 130 countries, Mr. Luck said. Nevertheless, the Government recognized that indigenous people were disadvantaged within the Australian community, largely as a result of the effects of European settlement. While it was impossible to turn back the clock, the Australian Government was strongly committed to addressing the unacceptable level of disadvantage suffered by many of Australia's indigenous people.

Mr. Luck continued to say that the Government believed that sustainable improvements in indigenous people's lives required a long-term strategy. The fact that long-term measures were being taken to improve the position of the indigenous people did not mean that the Government was failing to abide by its obligations under the Covenant.

Government spending on indigenous-specific programmes was now the highest on record, and a wide range of programmes were in place to help improve the health, housing, education and employment opportunities of indigenous people. Those measures were necessary if indigenous people were to more fully exercise and enjoy their civil and political rights. The Australian Government also supported indigenous people having opportunities to exercise more meaningful control over their affairs, including by participation in political processes. As members of the Australian community, indigenous people enjoyed and exercised the same

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democratic rights as the general community, including the right to vote and stand for election.

Mr. Luck said that indigenous people were over-represented in the criminal justice system; in 1991, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody found that Aboriginal people were more likely to be imprisoned than were members of the general community.

The Australian Government was committed to the process of reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians and recognized the importance of that process to Austria's future, Mr. Luck said.

Discussion

Responding to written questions drawn up by Committee experts in advance, the Australian delegation said that treaties, including human rights instruments, were not self-executing in Australia and required legislative implementation to be effective in Australian law. An individual could not complain in a domestic court about a breach of Australia's international human rights obligations unless the right had been incorporated into domestic law.

Concerning the issue of remedy in the event of violation of rights under the Covenant, anti-discriminatory acts in many states provided remedies, including compensation, the delegation said. Victims of sexual, racial or social discrimination could also lodge complaints to the federal authorities. If national remedies were found unsatisfactory, the victim could lodge complaints at the international level in the form of communications to the Human Rights Committee.

Australia believed in self-determination of people to handle their own affairs at local and regional levels, the delegation said. In the areas where indigenous people lived, local governments ran the employment, housing-related functions and other tasks. The federal Government provided assistance to disadvantaged regions and people.

Responding to a question on under-representation of Aboriginal persons in civil society, and particularly in areas of education, the delegation said that indigenous people were under-represented in many areas despite the measures to upgrade their presence in the activities of the society. They participated in elections and were serving as deputies both on state and local levels. In the areas of education, many Australian indigenous people had been pursuing their education as any other citizens.

On the removal of Aboriginal children from their families, the delegation said one in ten children had been removed in the past, impacting great suffering to those children and their families. The Government had proposed a $65 million compensation package to improve access to records and to reunite separated children with their families. The Government believed that cash compensation was not the only answer to that issue. It also believed in building a better social infrastructure to improve the conditions of the indigenous people.

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The delegation said that under past assimilation policies, many Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families. The 1994 Australian bureau of statistics survey of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had revealed that over 10 per cent of Aboriginal people over the age of 25 reported having been taken away from their natural families.

In many Australian juvenile prisons, the number of indigenous inmates was significantly higher, the delegation said. The high number was attributed to poverty and ignorance among the indigenous people.

Women played an important role in the Australian society, both in politics and education, the delegation said. They participated in all levels of elections and served as legislators, in addition to their important presence in the judiciary and the executive. In many of the country's universities, female enrolment was also very high.

Following the responses of the Australian delegation, an expert expressed dismay that the reports were delayed in their submission. The expert said that Australia was among the few countries which did not have a formal bill of human rights in its legal system. The Australian legal system also contained a hole and individual human rights could not be fully guaranteed by the Government. Why were the decisions of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission were not implemented?

The absence of the Covenant in legislation in Australia had caused a lot of problems, commented another expert. Equality in judicial implementation was important and it could be carried out if there were guidelines which were applicable to all states; the implementation of the Covenant rights should be a constitutional matter. As in the case of many other States, Australia had enactment problems which should be dealt with thoroughly; and Australia was encouraged to move in the direction of enacting laws guaranteeing the implementation of the rights under the Covenant.

There was a big difference in wealth and life styles between Australians of European origin and the indigenous people, echoed another Committee member. It was a tragic fact that despite the wealth and resources that Australia possessed, the indigenous people were dispossessed, excluded and marginalized as seen today. Life expectancy among the indigenous community was by far lower than among other Australians; and the Government was urged to increase efforts to reduce disparities among its citizens. With regard to the criminal justice system, the juvenile mandatory sentencing regime should be replaced by other alternatives.

An expert said the Australian Government was reported to be unhappy about the functioning of treaty bodies. What the treaty bodies were asking for was the implementation of the instruments which the State had voluntarily ratified. Australia could not complain about the performance of the Human Rights Committee since it was coming before it after a lapse of ten years.

The lack of legislation to embody the Covenant into domestic law was something which should be underlined, an expert said.

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Quoting the statement of the head of the Australian delegation who said that the Aboriginal people were under-privileged, an expert said that it was more important that they were misunderstood. The meaning of land to indigenous people could not be interpreted according to economic and land ownership concepts. For the Aboriginal people, the concept of land was beyond individual ownership; it was rather a collective expression of a community living together. For that reason, the thinking of Aboriginal people had clashed with the thinking of Australians of European origin who thought of individual possession of land. A convergence of both schools of thought should find a common denominator to resolve this problem.

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