FROM: NATIONAL WOMEN'S JUSTICE COALITION, WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTION NETWORK AUSTRALIA AND THE YWCA OF AUSTRALIA DATE: 21 September 2000 SIGN ON BY 29 Sept 2000 Letter to Prime Minister from Women's Organisations & Individuals re: Review of Australia's Participation in the Human Rights Treaty System and International Protection System **************************************************************************** ****************************** -----------PLEASE CIRCULATE QUICKLY------------------ Sept. 18 '00 Urgent: Call for endorsements - letter to the Prime Minister and others - reconsider the decision not to ratify the optional protocol to CEDAW. Call ends Friday 29 Sept 2000 web page: <http://www.nwjc.org.au/wrana> **************************************************************************** ****************************** BACKGROUND The long road to the United Nations adopting the Optional Protocol to CEDAW on 6 October 1999 and Australia's participation in that process is summarised on the NWJC Optional Protocol web page at: http://www.nwjc.org.au/current/optionalprotocol.htm On 29 August 2000 the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Attorney-General and Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs issued a joint press release titled: Improving the Effectiviness of United Nations Committees. The press release read in part: "Cabinet decided Australia's strategic engagement with the treaty committee system should be dependent on the extent to which effective reform occurs. In pursuit of reform the Government will take the following measures: ...............Australia will immediately implement a package of measures to improve our continued interaction with UN human rights treaty committees, including the following: ......... (d)Australia will not sign or ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which establishes a new complaints procedure." When making their decision to reduce engagement with the human rights and refugee systems of the UN, the Cabinet received advice that if they decided NOT to ratify the Optional Protocol to CEDAW there would be a tremendous backlash from the community. Now you can be part of this backlash!! Below is a one page letter which will be sent to the Prime Minister, with copies to the Attorney-General, the Foreign Minister, the Immigration Minister and the Minister for the Status of Women. It covers the two areas the government identified - human rights and refugees. Please sign, either as an individual or on behalf of an organisation, or both! And at the recent Millennium Assembly, the Optional Protocol to CEDAW got to 9 ratifications, so is now one shy of entry into force, which means Australia is well and truly out of step with supporters of women's human rights. We will present these to the Prime Minister of Thursday 5 October, the eve of the one year anniversary of the adoption of the Optional Protocol to CEDAW by the General Assembly of the United Nations. Please forward this message to friends and colleagues. -------------------------THE LETTER------------> Dear Prime Minister, Review of Australia s Participation in the Human Rights Treaty System and International Protection System On behalf of x organisations and x individual women and men, we are writing to express our profound disappointment at the measures the Coalition Government announced on 29 August. Australia had enjoyed a strong reputation as a nation committed to the progressive development of human rights and refugee protection, particularly by participating fully and effectively in the treaty monitoring system, and in the development of new human rights standards. We are deeply concerned that the Cabinet decision undermines this reputation. With respect to the decision not to ratify the Optional Protocol to CEDAW, the decision has the effect of aligning Australia with countries whose human rights records we have criticised in the past, for example, Malaysia has also not ratified the Optional Protocol. The international support for the OP to CEDAW has been demonstrated at the recent Millennium Summit where an additional five states ratified the OP to CEDAW taking the total to 9 ratifications, with a total of 57 signatories. This means that within one year of adoption, one third of all states parties have given notice of their intention to ratify CEDAW, a precedent setting achievement. We strongly urge you to reconsider the decision not to ratify the OP to CEDAW. While we acknowledge the imperative for reform of the human rights treaty system, particularly to ensure that adequate levels of funding are directed to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, we are not convinced that restricting our participation in the human rights and refugee systems provides us with the greatest opportunities to achieve reform. It is an unusual move to remove oneself from the systems one seeks to reform. As I am sure you aware, there are many governments around the world who systematically oppose NGO participation in the UN, or indeed at a domestic level. We are concerned that the text of the announcement seeks to undermine the legitimate role of NGOs at the UN, and also queries their legitimate role as a member of civil society in providing alternative perspectives on domestic human rights issues. We would therefore welcome an affirmation by the Government of the importance of ensuring the participation of a vibrant, autonomous civil sector in the international and domestic arenas. For many refugee women, the failure of the Refugee Convention and its protocol to identify gender as a ground for a well founded fear of persecution has made the process of acquiring refugee status exceedingly difficult. We would be tremendously concerned if the Government were to move to redefine international developments in the interpretation of the Convention and its Protocol, both with respect to gender, and more generally in other areas. We note that the measures announced Tuesday 29 August, do not elaborate on how the Government will seek to implement their reform package, nor how it will measure when appropriate reform has been achieved. We would welcome a commitment on the part of your Government to developing transparent indicators of success, and to communicating regularly with the NGO sector on establishing these indicators, and on progress to achieving them. We would like to suggest that the Cabinet consider reviewing this decision on an annual basis, and perhaps adopting progressive success measures which will see Australia re-entering the human rights and protection systems within an appropriate time frame. One such measure might be to agree to the scheduled visit in October of the Special Rapporteur on Racism. With the eyes of the world on Australia at the time of the Olympics it is indeed unfortunate that the Government is seen as unwilling to receive international advice on measures to address the discrimination experienced by indigenous Australians. We strongly urge you to affirm to the global community your commitment to the promotion of universal human rights by approving this visit. Regardless of these suggestions, we must reiterate that we are extremely disappointed by the decision of the Cabinet and do not condone the reform measures you have adopted. Yours sincerely, Women's Rights Action Network Australia, http://www.nwjc.org.au/wrana -------------------------------------------> ENDORSEMENT FORM - copy this page and return it by email or print the page and return it by fax. I, ............................................................................ ................................................[name and position] of ............................................................................ ................................................ [organisation if applicable] address ............................................................................ ................................................ State/Territory ....................... P'code ................... Ph ( ) Fax ( ) Email: endorse the letter by the Women's Rights Action Network (Review of Australia s Participation in the Human Rights Treaty System and International Protection System) above as: tick as appropriate: ( ) an individual ( ) on behalf of my organisation. You may endorse in both capacities. Signed .................................................. on [date] ...................................... Please email the completed form by 29 September to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or fax to 03 9347 2392 Phone contact for inquiries: Susan Brennan ph: 03 9225 8941 or Di Otto ph: 03 9344 4063 -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
