Canberra denies UN committee permission to visit
Source: AAP | Published: Friday April 30 5:49:29 PM
A United Nations committee that condemned the amended Native Title Act
as racist has been denied government permission to
visit Australia.
Attorney-General Daryl Williams' spokesman today confirmed that the
government had told the UN Committee for the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination (CERD) not to come to Australia to continue its
investigation of Wik amendments passed last year.
The CERD committee last month urged the government to suspend the
legislation because it discriminated against Aborigines
and conflicted with Australia's obligations under the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Exploitation.
"The government's view all through this matter is that the government
cooperated fully with the committee, provided detailed
information as requested and also provided officials to discuss the
issues," Mr Williams' spokesman said.
"The committee is or was examining the native title legislation and
whether that legislation complied with the convention and the
government's view is that to examine the legislation, you do not need to
visit Australia.
"The government at the time of the report expressed extreme
disappointment that the report was unbalanced and failed to take
into account much of the information made available to the committee."
CERD wrote to Australia's Ambassador for Disarmament and Permanent
Representative to the UN Leslie Luck this month
advising the committee had considered three letters inviting a visit to
Australia to further their investigation.
"Provided that the government of Australia had no objection to members
of the committee visiting Australia ... three members ...
would be nominated to accept these invitations," CERD secretary Robert
Husbands wrote in a letter, a copy of which was seen
by AAP.
Mr Luck replied last week pointing out to CERD that protocol dictated
that such visits were made at a government's invitation.
"Given the extensive information already provided on the issues under
consideration by the committee and that these issues
can be considered without the committee visiting Australia, the
government does not believe such a visit would be of value," Mr
Luck wrote.
"The government of Australia therefore considers that the proposed visit
should not go ahead."
Opposition Aboriginal affairs spokesman Daryl Melham, who extended one
of the invitations to CERD on behalf of the ALP, said the refusal was an
unprecedented affront to the UN.
"It's a scandalous cover up that's shaming us in the international
community," Mr Melham said.
Mr Melham said the government's own legal advice confirmed CERD concerns
were founded that the Wik amendments breached the convention.
Australia's disrespect for the convention was particularly damaging to
Australia's efforts to protect human rights in East Timor.
"That's where we're seen as being hypocrites, a pariah in the
international community running around preaching to the world in terms of the
north,"
he said.
Other invitations came from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Commission and a joint letter was sent by Australian Democrats Senator John
Woodley and Labor Senator Margaret Reynolds.
Australia last year became the first western country to be summoned by
CERD to explain the government's direction on indigenous rights.
CERD made a preliminary finding that the native title amendments were
racist and will make a full report in August.
An opposition bid to have a Senate committee re-examine the Native Title
Act in light of CERD criticism failed yesterday when Tasmanian
Independent Brian Harradine refused to support the measure.
-------------------------------------------------------
RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at
http://www.mail-archive.com/
To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body
of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce
This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission
from the
copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under
the "fair
use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further
without
permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/
