Intervention needs rethink: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay

Milanda Rout

THE UN's top human rights official has called on the Gillard government to fundamentally rethink the indigenous intervention, saying it had caused deep hurt and pain to Aborigines.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says she met a number of indigenous communities during her time in Australia and they claimed government staff had an "imperialist attitude" and that the intervention was discriminatory.

"I could sense the deep hurt and pain that they have suffered because of government policies that have been imposed on them," she said. "I also saw Aboriginal people making great efforts to improve their communities, but noted their efforts are often stifled by inappropriate and inflexible policies."

Ms Pillay said the indigenous people she met had told her income management and housing programs were not working well.

"One person told me that he didn't have money left to buy ice-cream for his children," she said. "The whole voluntariness of spending your own income has been removed from them. They feel they are being targeted."

Ms Pillay said she urged the government to do a "fundamental rethink" of the measures being taken under the Northern Territory emergency response.

"There should be a major effort to ensure not just consultation with the communities concerned in any future measure, but also their consent and active participation," she said. "Such a course of action would be in line with the UN declaration (of human rights)."

When asked what the government should do to address the domestic violence and child abuse in Aboriginal communities, Ms Pillay said it should be tackled in a broader context. "It has to be addressed in all its forms, right across the community," she said.

She also said Aboriginal women had told her the best way to combat domestic violence was to empower and resource them to take the initiative in their own communities.

"They need resources for their work and appropriate support from police," she said. "But really, domestic violence occurs all over the world, in rich and poor countries . . . and it would be wrong to stereotype the Aboriginal community as something occurring in just that community."

Ms Pillay's comments come after Liberal MP Ken Wyatt, the first Aborigine elected to the lower house, called on Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard to visit the Northern Territory together and develop a long-term plan to tackle indigenous disadvantage.

"You cannot . . . leave people to live in some of the conditions or experience the grief they continually do," he said.


(2011-5-26/The Australian)