Amnesty International: 18 February 2000
HUMAN RIGHTS: HOWARD'S DISREGARD FOR OBLIGATIONS SHOCKS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Prime Minister John Howard's repeated dismissal of Australian violations of international standards reveals a shocking disregard of his country's obligations, says Amnesty International. Highlighting the recent death of a 15-year-old Aboriginal boy serving a mandatory detention term, the human rights body says the Howard government has persistently refused to act on laws and practices which UN bodies have found inconsistent with Australia's human rights obligations.
Amnesty News Service
http://www.amnesty.org/news/2000/118feb00.htm
AI INDEX: ASA 12/00
AUSTRALIA: PRIME MINISTER'S DISREGARD OF HUMAN RIGHTS OBLICATIONS SHOCKS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
IN AN ironic coincidence, the United Nations Secretary General's praise for
Australia's assistance to East Timor today contrasts with the Australian
Prime Minister's refusal to accept that universal human rights standards
equally apply to his own country, Amnesty International said.
"If all states which signed up to human rights treaties took the same
view as Prime Minister John Howard, then we might as well tear them
up," Amnesty International said.
"The Prime Minister's blunt rejection of Australia's accountability to
the rest of the world over its human rights record is a flagrant violation
of the principle that state parties to human rights treaties are
accountable to each other," the organization added.
Prime Minister Howard's repeated dismissal of Australian violations of
international standards reveals a shocking disregard of his country's
obligations. His government has persistently refused to act on laws and
practices which UN bodies found inconsistent with Australia's human rights
obligations.
The recent death of a 15-year-old Aboriginal boy serving a mandatory
detention term highlights the punitive and racist effects of juvenile
justice laws. The legislation prevents a court from considering restitution
to victims and the harm created when sentencing property offenders.
An average of 75 per cent of children detained in Australia's Northern
Territory are Aboriginal, although they make up only about 32 per cent of
the juvenile population. A government member of Parliament has asserted
that the laws target "Aboriginal lawlessness".
"It is not up to the Prime Minister to decide when the universal human
rights standards that were applied recently in East Timor should be applied
to his own country. If Australia voluntarily binds itself to international
treaties, it must accept being held accountable to them," the organization
concluded.
Background
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Amnesty International, International Secretariat, 1 Easton Street, London
WC1X 0DW.
18 February 2000
Australia rejected criticism of its juvenile justice laws by the UN
Committee on the Rights of the Child in 1997, of its mandatory detention of
asylum seekers by the UN Human Rights Committee in 1997, and of its
racially discriminatory Aboriginal land use laws by the UN Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination in 1999.