The Human Rights of Rural Australians

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The Human Rights of Rural Australians

Occasional Paper, May 1996

Human rights are

universal. This means they apply to all people wherever they live and

whatever their circumstances. People living in rural areas have an equal

entitlement to human rights as those people who live in urban areas. However,

for rural Australians, the full enjoyment of their human rights can sometimes

be problematic. The reasons for this are many and varied. They include

issues of distance and remoteness, the extremes of weather and the uncertainties

of the rural economy. In Australia, the high concentration of population

in major urban centres can lead to inequalities in the provision of goods,

services and opportunities.

This includes areas

such as:

The right to work

In many rural areas people have fewer opportunities for employment and

are more likely to be out of work longer than their urban counterparts

- particularly young people under 25 years of age.

The right to a decent standard of living

The incidence of poverty in rural and remote areas of Australia is considerably

higher than the national average.

Health

The standard of health care in rural Australia is in crisis, as evidenced

by indicators such as the extremely low ratio of general practitioners

to population.

Water

All Australians have the right to reasonable access to sufficient, clean,

safe water for their survival and health, yet many thousands of people

in smaller remote communities are without direct water supply to their

homes.

Some groups of people

in rural areas experience particularly serious problems.

Young people

Australia suffers one of the highest youth suicide rates in the developed

world. The suicide rate for young males in small country communities is

especially high and has increased by 600% in the space of one generation.

Rural young people

experience particular difficulty with the juvenile justice system. In

rural areas detention facilities for young offenders are few and far between.

This results in young people who are given a term in detention being taken

far from their homes and families. Advocacy and other support services

for young rural people in the juvenile justice system remain inadequate.

Indigenous people

The Indigenous people of Australia are without doubt the most disadvantaged

group in our society. This disadvantage is felt especially in rural and

remote areas and can be seen by indicators such as the high rate of infant

mortality, high rates of pneumonia and respiratory illnesses and the shamefully

poor standard of Indigenous housing.

People with mental illness

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's Mental Illness Inquiry

highlighted the serious shortage of support services for people in rural

areas affected by mental illness.

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Last

updated 2 December 2001.