Forwarded from Christine Howes: 17 August 1999 UNITING CHURCH PRESSURES GOVERNMENT OVER UN FINDINGS Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal leaders of the Uniting Church in Australia are unified in pressuring the Federal Government to take seriously the latest United Nations findings on Australia’s Indigenous Peoples. The Uniting Church’s National Assembly and its Aboriginal arm, the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress urge the Prime Minister not to ignore the decision of the international community’s ‘umpire’ on racial discrimination. The United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) reaffirmed the decisions concerning Australia which it took in March regarding the Native Title Amendment Act 1998. UCA General Secretary, Rev. Gregor Henderson and UAICC National Administrator Rev. Shayne Blackman said that discussions on issues of land and human rights must be reopened in the light of CERD’s identification of lack of sufficient dialogue with Indigenous Peoples. They emphasised that this matter was urgent and CERD’s findings of racial discrimination in the Native Title Amendment Act 1998 needed to be addressed immediately. “For the national process of reconciliation to have any credibility, Indigenous concern about land justice and human rights must be addressed,” Rev. Henderson said. “How else can we as a nation regain the trust and goodwill of Indigenous people.” ------------------------------------------------------- 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/
