UN criticism of Australia's race record AM - Wednesday, August18, 19998:23 PETER CAVE: Australia's race record has come in for stinging criticism from an influential UN body despite a concerted lobbying effort by the Federal Government. As Mark Tamhane reports, the Geneva-based Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination says Australia's Wik legislation acutely impairs the land rights of Aborigines and may be in breach of our international obligations. MARK TAMHANE: This is the second time the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, or CERD as it's called, has expressed alarm at the Federal Government's Wik legislation. In March committee members said they were concerned at the compatibility of the amendments to the Native Title Act with Australia's international obligations under the convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination which Canberra signed up to in 1975. The CERD committee gave Australia a chance to respond to its criticism, and the Federal Government swung into action, mounting a fierce lobbying campaign and a strong defence of its race record. After all, it's not every day a Western government has to join a list of countries like Rwanda and Yugoslavia in explaining its laws to UN officials. But the committee has now rejected the Government's arguments, saying that if anything the situation with regard to indigenous land rights in Australia is becoming worse. Michael Banton is a British member of the committee. MICHAEL BANTON: The committee understood that there was a strong case for improving legal certainty as a result of the Wik decision. But it considered that it had secured that certainty at the expense of the rights of native title holders. There was a real doubt as to whether the outcome was equitable. MARK TAMHANE: The CERD committee has repeated its call for the Federal Government to suspend implementation of the Wik legislation and reopen discussions with Aboriginal groups. While it has no power to compel the Government to act, the findings are deeply embarrassing. They'll now be included in the committee's annual report which will be forwarded to the UN General Assembly. PETER CAVE: Mark Tamhane. © 1999 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ------------------------------------------------------- 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/
