The Sydney Morning Herald
March 27, 2000
Letters to the editor
UN-certain times
"Support for international conventions sets moral as well as legal
standards" ("Walk tall in a wicked world," Herald, March 23).
I especially support the Convention on the Rights of the Child, with its
simple objectives for our foreign aid that include providing
universal access to clean water and increasing support for child
immunisation.
These are very relevant to Mozambique today.
However, the Federal Government has been planning for five years to
negate all these Conventions, since the 1995 Teoh immigration
decision by the High Court.
The Administrative Decisions (Effect of International Instruments) Bill
was introduced in October 1999, to specifically provide that
"international instruments do not give rise to legitimate expectations
at law", unless they have been implemented into domestic legislation.
Australia is thus preparing to negate the UN standards that have so
painstakingly been agreed to at significant forums like the 1990 World
Summit for Children.
During the '90s, there was a series of welcome international conferences
that have helped create new standards for children, the
environment and social development in the developing world. We have just
scraped through a violent and hungry 20th century. These
standards can help make our uncertain world a UN-certain one in the 21st
century.
Peter Graves, Campbell (ACT).
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Truth is a pathless land. --- Krishnamurti
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