Indigenous Internaional Rights: International scrutiny of Indigenous rights in Australia

This section provides links to UN documents, Australian Human Rights Commission submissions and explanatory material on Australia’s Indigenous human rights record.

Materials under the following headings are presented in chronological order, starting with the most recent.

• UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, August 2006
• Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, January 2006
• Expert seminar on Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty over natural resources and relationship to land – Submission by the Social Justice Commissioner, January 2006
• Committee on the Rights of the Child,- Submission by the Social Justice Commissioner, September 2005
• Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, March 2005
• Expert seminar on Indigenous people and the administration of justice - Submission by the Social Justice Commissioner,  November 2003
• UN Committee on the Rights of the Child - Day of General Discussion, September 2003
• UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism and related intolerance, March 2002
• UN human rights treaty committees - 2000
  
  • Committee Against Torture, November 2000;
  • Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, August 2000;
  • Human Rights Committee, July 2000; and
  • Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, March 2000.
• Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Early warning mechanism (March and August 1999)
• Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Early warning mechanism (August 1998)

Chapter 3 of the Social Justice Report published by the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2000 also discussed International scrutiny of Australia's Indigenous Afairs policies.

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UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, August 2006

The UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing released his Preliminary Observations regarding his visit to Australia in August 2006.

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, January 2006

The Committee considered the combined 4th and 5th periodic reports of Australia and adopted the following Concluding Comments in January 2006,

Expert seminar on Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty over natural resources and relationship to land, January 2006

The Office of the UN High Commissioner convened an expert seminar on Indigenous peoples’ permanent sovereignty over natural resources and their relationship to land in Geneva in January 2006.

See :

• • Social Justice Commissioner’s submission to the expert seminar
  • Final report of the expert seminar  
  • Final working paper on Indigenous peoples and their relationship to land prepared by the Special Rapporteur, 2001

Committee on the Rights of the Child, September 2005

The Committee considered the combined 2nd and 3rd periodic reports of Australia and adopted the following Concluding Observations in September 2005.

Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, March 2005

The Committee considered the 13th and 14th periodic reports of Australia and adopted the following Concluding Observations in March 2005.

See also:

• • CERD’s Observations on the additional report of Australia, August 2006
  • Australia’s additional report on the Concluding Observations of the CERD, April 2006
  • HREOC’s submission on Australia’s combined 13th and 14th periodic reports, January 2005
  • Australian NGO’s submission on the Australia’s 13th and 14th periodic reports, January 2005
  • Information Note: The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the periodic reporting process

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Expert seminar on Indigenous people and the administration of justice, November 2003

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights convened an expert seminar on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of Indigenous peoples in November 2003. The seminar considered issues relating to Indigenous peoples' contact with criminal justice systems.

See:

• • Conclusions and Recommendations from the seminar on Indigenous Peoples and the Administration of Justice, January 2004.

The Social Justice Commissioner made the following three submissions to the Special Rapporteur for the workshop:

• • Issue 1: Overview of the current status in addressing Indigenous people’s contact with criminal justice processes in Australia;
  • Issue 2: Specific issues relating to the administration of justice - Indigenous women; public order laws; mandatory sentencing schemes; and best practice for diverting Indigenous juveniles; and
  • Issue 3: Recognising Aboriginal customary law and developments in community justice.

UN Committee on the Rights of the Child - Day of General Discussion, September 2003

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child convened a Day of General Discussion on the rights of Indigenous Children in September 2003.

The Social Justice Commissioner made three submissions to the Committee relating to the following themes:

• • Issue 1: Identity and culture
  • Issue 2: Non-discrimination and equality
  • Issue 3: Law and public order, including juvenile justice

See also:

• • Conclusions and recommendations from the Day of General Discussion, October 2003

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UN Special Rapporteur report on contemporary forms of racism and related intolerance, March 2002

The UN Special Rapporteur on racism released the following Report of his visit to Australia in April - May 2001.

See also:

• • The Social Justice Commissioner’s overview and commentary on the report, 2001
  • The Social Justice Commissioner’ press release on the report, March 2002

UN human rights treaty committees - 2000

Australia appeared before four UN human rights treaty committees in 2000:

• • Committee Against Torture, November 2000;
  • Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, August 2000;
  • Human Rights Committee, July 2000; and
  • Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, March 2000.

For an analysis of the dialogue between the Australian government and these committees and a summary of HREOC’s submissions to three of the committees see https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/projects/native-title

Committee Against Torture, November 2000

The Committee Against Torture considered the second report of Australia in November 2000 and adopted the following Concluding Observations.

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, August 2000

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights considered the third periodic report of Australia on the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in August 2000, and adopted the following Concluding Observations.

Human Rights Committee, July 2000

The Human Rights Committee considered the third and fourth periodic reports of Australia in July 2000 and adopted the following Concluding Observations.

See also:

• Overview of the dialogue between the Committee and the Australian government  
• The Social Justice Commissioner’s press release on the Committee findings, July 2000
• HREOC’s submissions to the Human Rights Committee, July 2000

Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, March 2000

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination considered the tenth, eleventh and twelfth periodic reports of Australia,in March 2000 and adopted the following Concluding Observations.

See also:

• Overview of the dialogue between the Committee and the Australian government  
• Overview of the dialogue between the Committee and the Australian government on Native Title issues  
• HREOC’s submissions to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, March 2000

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Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Early warning mechanism (March and August 1999)

Early warning procedures are used by the CERD in an attempt to prevent serious violations of the Convention occurring. Acting under this procedure, the Committee requested information from Australia regarding three areas of concern:

• • Proposed changes to the 1993 Native Title Act;
  • Changes of policy as to Aboriginal land rights; and
  • Changes in the position or function of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner.

Australia appeared before the Committee at its March 1999 session to address these issues.

The Social Justice Commissioner prepared the following submissions to the Committee under the early warning procedure:

• Social Justice Commissioner’ submission to CERD, March 1999  
• Social Justice Commissioner’ submission to CERD, August 1999

The Committee issued the following comments:

• Early warning decision, August 1999
• Early warning decision, March 1999

See also:

• Social Justice Commissioner's analysis of CERD’s findings.
• The AIATSIS Land, Rights, Laws: Issues of Native Title paper 2(29) titled The Compatibility of the Amended Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) with the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by Margaret Donaldson and Darren Dick: http://ntru.aiatsis.gov.au/publications/issue_papers.html

Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Early warning mechanism (August 1998)

Acting under its early warning procedure, the Committee requested the Australian Government to provide information on recent changes to the 1993 Native Title Act and proposed policy changes regarding Aboriginal land rights and the functions of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Social Justice Commissioner.  The Committee consequently issued the following comments:

• Early warning decision, August 1998

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