The Human Rights of Rural Australians
The Human Rights
of Rural Australians
Occasional Paper, May 1996
Human rights are
universal. This means they apply to all people wherever they live and
whatever their circumstances. People living in rural areas have an equal
entitlement to human rights as those people who live in urban areas. However,
for rural Australians, the full enjoyment of their human rights can sometimes
be problematic. The reasons for this are many and varied. They include
issues of distance and remoteness, the extremes of weather and the uncertainties
of the rural economy. In Australia, the high concentration of population
in major urban centres can lead to inequalities in the provision of goods,
services and opportunities.
This includes areas
such as:
The right to work
In many rural areas people have fewer opportunities for employment and
are more likely to be out of work longer than their urban counterparts
- particularly young people under 25 years of age.
The right to a
decent standard of living
The incidence of poverty in rural and remote areas of Australia is considerably
higher than the national average.
Health
The standard of health care in rural Australia is in crisis, as evidenced
by indicators such as the extremely low ratio of general practitioners
to population.
Water
All Australians have the right to reasonable access to sufficient, clean,
safe water for their survival and health, yet many thousands of people
in smaller remote communities are without direct water supply to their
homes.
Some groups of people
in rural areas experience particularly serious problems.
Young people
Australia suffers one of the highest youth suicide rates in the developed
world. The suicide rate for young males in small country communities is
especially high and has increased by 600% in the space of one generation.
Rural young people
experience particular difficulty with the juvenile justice system. In
rural areas detention facilities for young offenders are few and far between.
This results in young people who are given a term in detention being taken
far from their homes and families. Advocacy and other support services
for young rural people in the juvenile justice system remain inadequate.
Indigenous people
The Indigenous people of Australia are without doubt the most disadvantaged
group in our society. This disadvantage is felt especially in rural and
remote areas and can be seen by indicators such as the high rate of infant
mortality, high rates of pneumonia and respiratory illnesses and the shamefully
poor standard of Indigenous housing.
People with mental
illness
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's Mental Illness Inquiry
highlighted the serious shortage of support services for people in rural
areas affected by mental illness.
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Last
updated 2 December 2001.