Submission to the Senate Committee's inquiry into the stolen generation
Legal
Submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee's inquiry into the stolen generation
Table of Contents
Click here to read the Executive Summary
1. Introduction
2. Comments on the government response to the recommendation of Bringing them home
Principles for evaluating the adequacy of the government's implementation of the recommendations of Bringing them home
a) National coordination
b) The human rights framework
c) Indigenous participation
Comments on the implementation of specific recommendations of Bringing them home
Recommendation 1
Recording testimonies
Recommendation 2
Procedure for implementation
Recommendation 5a
Acknowledgement and apology (Australian parliaments)
Recommendation 10
Genocide Convention
Recommendation 30
Establishment of family tracing and reunion services
Recommendations 33-36
health, counselling, well-being and parenting skills
Recommendation 42
Social Justice
Recommendations 43-53
National framework legislation and standards legislation
3. Comments on the Federal Government's submission to this Inquiry
The methodology of Bringing them home
a) That the report is based on uncorroborated evidence and presented 'only one side of the historical record'
b) That the report has contributed to 'a simplistic concept of a 'stolen generation'
c) That the report does not distinguish between the various reasons for separation
d) That the report overestimates the number of children 'stolen'
The government's response to issues of reparation and compensation
a) Compensation through litigation
b) The principle of reparations
c) Standards of the day and international human rights principles
Genocide
The prohibition of racial discrimination
d) Forcible removal as genocide
e) Forcible removal as racial discrimination
f) Compensation
4. Recent international developments
Canada
a) Gathering Strength: the Canadian Government response to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples
b) Restoring dignity: the report of the Law Commission of Canada
c) Litigation
South Africa
Aotearoa/New Zealand
Denmark
Norway
United States
Last updated 2 December 2001.