Over 200 organisations outline human rights concerns at outset of COVID crisis
More than 200 not-for-profit and community organisations have backed a major report calling on the Australian Government to strengthen its commitment to human rights in its laws, policies and practices.
The report has been prepared ahead of a United Nations Human Rights Council review of Australia in a process known as the Universal Periodic Review, which each member of the UN must undergo every four years.
Edwina MacDonald, a Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre and one of the report coordinators, said it offers a comprehensive insight into the state of human rights in Australia, at a crucial time with the COVID-19 crisis set to exacerbate existing inequalities and create a host of new human rights challenges.
“The human rights that many Australians have taken for granted are suddenly front and centre in public consciousness – essential rights like healthcare and education are coming under enormous strain and structural economic inequalities will hit disadvantaged communities hard. This report provides a snapshot of the existing problems and is a stark reminder that Australians will not face this pandemic on equal footings,” said MacDonald.
Download Australia’s Human Rights Scorecard: Australia’s 2020 UN UPR NGO Coalition Report.
Further quotes from report partners and endorsees:
Cathryn Eatock, Co-Chair of the Indigenous Peoples Organisation:
“The UPR NGO Report provides a crucial means to hold the Australian Government to account, with paternalistic welfare reforms racially profiling Aboriginal communities. Regions with high Aboriginal populations have been targeted through the repressive Cashless Debit Card, that stigmatises Aboriginal people and echoes previous days of food rationing. The punitive Community Development Program, a ‘work for the dole’ program, also targets remote Aboriginal communities. It requires more onerous work obligations, and disproportionately applies financial penalties to Aboriginal people, leading to hunger and causing substantial harm.
“Chronic overcrowding in remote Aboriginal communities, which already experience compromised and complex health burdens from poor living conditions, leave Aboriginal communities particularly vulnerable to the potentially devastating impact of COVID-19. This health crisis requires working with Aboriginal people to urgently address the shortfall in housing and services, while fiercely protecting Aboriginal communities from the spread of this virus.
“Though the Australian Government signed up to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2009, it has failed to implement its most fundamental article, that of Indigenous self-determination. The challenges facing Aboriginal communities can only be addressed by working with and empowering Aboriginal people, and implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart and its call for justice. Australia must establish an Indigenous elected representative Voice to Parliament and a Makarrata, Truth and Justice Commission to develop a treaty with the First Peoples of Australia.”
Cheryl Axleby, Co-Chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services:
“The report raises a number of concerns about the ways the legal system is stacked against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Governments need to immediately put in place measures to stop the deaths of our people in custody and invest in diversionary programs. It’s also essential that they work in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations to tackle family violence and reduce imprisonment rates.
“The criminal justice system in Australia is failing our young people and taking children from their families, community and culture, and abandoning them into the quicksand of the criminal legal system. Australian Governments must raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 to end the over incarceration of our children.”
Dr Merrindahl Andrew, Program Manager of the Australian Women Against Violence Alliance:
"Many women in Australia are subjected to violence and discrimination due to their gender intersecting with the impacts of colonisation, racism, homophobia, ableism, migration status and other forms of structural oppression.
"The COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary steps that communities are taking to limit its spread can be expected to exacerbate many of these forms of violence and discrimination, making it even more urgent that increased resources be devoted to community-led and specialist services, and that programs be informed by an intersectional gender analysis.”
Background
Australia’s Universal Periodic Review by the UN Human Rights Council will take place early next year. The NGO Report was coordinated by the Human Rights Law Centre, the Kingsford Legal Centre and the Caxton Legal Centre, working with an Advisory Group comprised of 16 NGOs, and authors from 57 NGOs.
A copy of the Joint NGO Report can be found here. For more information about the UPR please visit: hrlc.org.au/universal-periodic-review
For further comments or queries please contact:
Michelle Bennett, Communications Director, Human Rights Law Centre, 0419 100 519