Australia must abolish policies that discriminate against Aborigines in its quest to lift its indigenous population out of Third World poverty, the head of an international human rights group said yesterday.
Irene Khan, secretary-general of London-based Amnesty International, singled out for criticism the government’s so-called emergency intervention aimed at eradicating child sex abuse in Outback Aboriginal communities.
The government suspended anti-racial discrimination laws two years ago so that it could target Aborigines in the remote Northern Territory with sweeping measures that ban alcohol and hardcore pornography, as well as control how welfare checks can be spent. The restrictions do not apply to Australians of other races.
The government was also spending billions of dollars on improving housing, health services, schools and policing in these overcrowded communities that are often plagued by alcohol and substance abuse.
Khan, a Bangladesh-born lawyer, told the National Press Club that Aboriginal poverty was “the most pressing frontier for human rights” in Australia.
She said the government must find a solution that respected all Aborigines’ rights without compromising racial equality.
“If Australia is to move to a lasting solution to poverty within its own borders, the government must move out of the knee-jerk emergency measures that are compromising and distorting human rights,” Khan said in a nationally televised speech.
“They feel disempowered, robbed of their dignity, threatened with the loss of their identity and attacked on their own ancestral lands,” she said of Aborigines she had met.
Khan’s recent visit to Aboriginal camps and ramshackle settlements in the Northern Territory came three months after a fact-finding mission to the same region by the UN special rapporteur on indigenous human rights, James Anaya.
Anaya concluded that the sweeping restrictions imposed on Aborigines breached Australia’s international obligations on human and indigenous rights.
In a statement yesterday, Australian Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin agreed that suspending discrimination laws had “left Aboriginal people feeling hurt, betrayed and less worthy than other Australians.”
Macklin said her government would soon restore the legislation.
But the government has not yet explained how the restrictions on Aborigines might be varied.
Aborigines are a minority of 500,000 among Australia’s 22 million people and die on average more than a decade younger than other Australians.
Khan said she was surprised to witness first hand the extent of their poverty.
“In the heart of the First World, I saw scenes more reminiscent of the Third World — of countries torn by war, dominated by repressive regimes or racked by corruption,” she said.
“It is pretty clear that what they are suffering from is a base violation of human rights and this violation occurs on a continent of such privilege that it is not merely disheartening, it is deeply disturbing,” she said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS