Search results

1) Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD): additional information to Australia's 10th, 11th and 12th periodic reports under CERD, March 2000;

All Australians are equally entitled to enjoy the rights, benefits and responsibilities of citizenship. In our society, every person should feel free from discrimination of any kind and have the right to share in the nation's land, resources and wealth. The entitlements and freedoms of all people are recognised in human rights instruments, many of which have been freely signed and ratified by Australia, and in some instances are now a part of Australian law.

It is a story of colonisation; the threat of losing our cultural authority to manage our societies; and the despair that has come from that disempowerment. It is a story of grief and trauma and the continued pain of living with grog, drug and violence.

The year 2001 marked the tenth anniversary of the final report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The 5 volumes and 339 recommendations that comprise the national report of Commissioner Johnston remain among the most extensive, frank and devastating examinations of the impact of colonialism on the Indigenous peoples of this country.

This timeline focuses on one particular aspect of the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples - the forcible removal of Indigenous children from their families. This material identifies some significant laws and practices that made removal lawful and includes writing and artwork from members of the Stolen Generations and their families which illustrate their experiences of these policies. This section uses as its primary resource Bringing them home, the report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families.

‘Finding my Family’, Rooth Wilay Robertson My painting depicts each family member, with all the different skin colours, as puzzle pieces finally all joined up to complete our story.

HREOC plays a significant role in monitoring legislation and policy in Australia to assess compliance with human rights principles. This monitoring role includes:

The contributors to this publication come from every part of Australia. They are sons and daughters, mothers and grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers. They are orphans, scholars, single parents, teachers, prisoners, healers, jillaroos and football stars. Many continue to suffer the effects of removal, manifesting in drug abuse, incarceration and mental illness. Thank you for sharing your stories with us, and shedding more light on what was up until recently, a taboo topic in Australia’s history. Each of you took a great risk.

HREOC plays a significant role in monitoring legislation and policy in Australia to assess compliance with human rights principles. This monitoring role includes:

The 2000 Social Justice Report is the second by Dr Jonas. It tabled in both houses of the federal Parliament on 28 March 2001. The theme of the report is reconciliation and human rights.

One of the most important ways to protect human rights is to build community understanding and challenge attitudes which are based on myths and stereotypes. The key to this is education.

In November 2007, Australia elected a new federal government. With the new government came new policies aimed at improving Aboriginal’s and Torres Strait Islander’s social and economic situation. In the new government’s National Platform and Constitution[1], the Australian Labor Party stated that it:

On 27 July 2000, the Commonwealth government and the Northern Territory Government signed an agreement for the establishment of a juvenile pre-court diversion scheme in the Northern Territory (NT). This agreement arose specifically as a response to the continued criticism of the NT’s mandatory minimum imprisonment laws and their impact on juveniles and Indigenous people. By establishing the pre-court juvenile diversionary scheme, the NT has belatedly joined most other states and territories in Australia in providing such options for dealing with juvenile offenders.