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Will Canberra support indigenous rights declaration?

Duncan Meerding, Hobart

14 October 2006

On October 10, 60 people attended a public meeting at which the keynote speaker, historian Henry Reynolds, spoke about the ongoing oppression of Indigenous Australians.

Reynolds said that a universal declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples was going to be voted on by the UN General Assembly in December. The declaration has taken eight years to draft and was approved by the UN Human Rights Council on June 29. He predicted that Australia would vote against this document because it enshrines legal equality for the world’s 370 million indigenous people.

The draft declaration recognises indigenous people’s right “to redress, by means that can include restitution or, when this is not possible, of a just, fair and equitable compensation, for the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned or otherwise occupied or used, and which have been confiscated, taken, occupied, used or damaged without their free, prior and informed consent”.