Mission & Justice

Dewi Cooke; 29/5/08

The Federal Government’s intervention in indigenous communities has earned Australia scorn in this year’s Amnesty International global human rights report. The intervention occurred “without adequate consultation” and resulted in a lack of control by indigenous people over their own lands, the report found. “The fact that the Racial Discrimination Act was suspended with respect to the intervention is of particular concern to us, it’s a breach of international law,” Amnesty campaigns manager Andrew Beswick said. Detailing the human rights performances of 150 countries, the report criticised a Queensland court for “inappropriately” bringing matters of consent into the rape trial of a 10-year-old Aboriginal girl after a prosecutor characterised the incident as “childish experimentation”. Nine males charged with the rape were later given non-custodial sentences.

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28/5/08

Amnesty International, a human rights group, has said that 60 years after world leaders signed the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, their record on the issue is dismal and that urgent action is needed to prevent global chaos. In its annual report, Amnesty said: “There is a growing demand from people for justice, freedom and equality.” The London-based organisation called on several world powers, including the United States, China and the European Union to set an example on the issue. Amnesty challenged the countries “to set a new paradigm for collective leadership based on the principles of the [declaration]“. “What we would like governments to do is get out of the state of denial. An apology is a means of getting out of the state of denial. They should then recommit themselves to take action to correct [their past actions],” Irene Khan, Amnesty’s secretary-general, told Al Jazeera.

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