Oral statement presented by Les Malezer, delegate of the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action, a non-governmental organization

Indigenous Peoples have the right to self-determination. This is the statement in Article 3 of the United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Indigenous Peoples believe this statement to be self-evident and a natural interpretation of the statements enshrined in article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations, in article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as in other international human rights instruments.

Yet, despite nearly ten years of consideration in the Working Group on the Draft Declaration, the participating States cannot reach consensus on this Article.

The work on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples must be concluded.

The colonisation of Indigenous Peoples is well-known, yet the remedies remain unattainable.

We remind the Commission of the obligations placed upon States in General Assembly Resolution 2625:

Every State has the duty to promote, through joint and separate action, realization of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, in accordance with the provisions of the Charter … and to bring a speedy end to colonialism, … bearing in mind that subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a violation of the principle, as well as a denial of fundamental human rights, and is contrary to the Charter.

As Aboriginal Peoples in Australia, we have been subject to colonial domination for approximately two hundred years.

Our territories were claimed as terra nullius.

The highest law court in Australia has asserted, as part of the Mabo decision of 1992, that sovereignty did not exist in Australia prior to 1788, insinuating that ‘sovereignty’ derives from Europe and was legitimately transplanted over “nothing”, when the Union Jack flag was planted. No-one has explained how this legal assertion is valid.

The Australian consitution only made two references to us – 1) to exclude us from the population census, and 2) to say the Australian Government could make laws for any race of people except Aborigines. Mercifully, these two discriminatory references in the Australian Constitution were removed in 1967, but the constitution still does not recognise the prior or continued existence of us, nor recognise our inherent rights as a peoples.

The Prime Minister of Australia refuses to negotiate a treaty with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, claiming that we have no status.

The Australian Government has intentionally ended the appointment of many Aboriginal people in high office in the country; viz:
• Patrick Dodson (terminated as Chair of the Council of Reconciliation);
• Lois O’Donoghue (terminated as Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission);
• Mick Dodson (terminated as Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner);
• David Ross (terminated as Chair of the Indigenous Land Corporation); and
• Dawn Casey (terminated as Chair of the Australian Museum).

The government has now suspended, with a view to termination, the elected Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, Mr Geoff Clark, because he sought to intervene in a race clash between Aboriginal people and the police. The court, in shielding and validating the racist aggressions of the police, has fined Mr Clark $700 for rioutous behaviour.

The government has taken the functions and budget away from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission and advocates ATSIC should be dismantled.

The government has ruthlessly quashed the ten-year ‘Reconciliation’ agenda, with Aboriginal leaders now claiming that ‘reconciliation is dead’ within Australia.

The sorry tale of colonisation is best summed up in the report from the Secretary General to the General Assembly in December 2002, when he said:

For the Aboriginals, despite the democratic foundations of the Australian State and its desire to incorporate all its ethnic components on an egalitarian basis, this State is a manifestation of colonization, whose consequences remain to this day, … (A/57/204)

We call upon the Commission on Human Rights to note this case, in Australia, and to act to unreservedly assert the right of the Indigenous Peoples, to self-determination, to finalise the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Source: FAIRA

A more detailed report can be found here (word document, 180kb)