Songlines

HREOC Mailing List Service

Your views needed on Australia’s support of the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Background:

The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples [ http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/drip.html ] was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on Thursday 13 September 2007. It was adopted with 143 countries voting in favour, 11 abstaining and 4 voting against. Australia was one of the four countries who voted against the Declaration.

With the change of government at the last federal election there has been a change in position on the Declaration with the Rudd government indicating that it supports the Declaration.

The government has now sought the views of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, among other stakeholders, on matters relating to how they ought to formally indicate their support for the Declaration.
In the course of providing advice, the Government has asked that I seek the input of Indigenous individuals and organisations. Accordingly, I am seeking your views on the following matters relating to the Declaration, as well as other issues that you consider should be addressed at this time.

Please provide contact information to enable us verify the source of the comments / information and so we can follow up with any clarifications or further information.

Regards,
Tom Calma

Please provide feedback on this page http://www.humanrights.gov.au/social_justice/declaration/comments.html

by 31 August 2008.

The Human Rights Commission supporting information about the Declaration are at http://www.humanrights.gov.au/social_justice/declaration/index.html.