ANTaR today welcomed the release of the report of the National Human Rights Consultation.

"We welcome the dawning of a human rights culture and legal framework in Australia which this report represents," ANTaR President, Dr Janet Hunt, said today.

"However it appears that the distinctive rights of Australia's First Peoples have been left in the too hard basket. Yet the Report itself makes clear that the consultations, especially those with many Indigenous participants, clearly indicated that these rights need protection.

“As the Federal Government has already indicated its support for the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples it is disappointing that there was no suggestion that it should be referred to.

“Nor has the Report recommended stronger protection of economic, social and cultural rights, rights which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders still don’t enjoy equally with other Australians.

"The Report would have been enhanced if it had followed the Victorian Human Rights Charter and recommended that the Federal Human Rights Bill include:
- a preamble acknowledging the First Peoples
- inclusion of rights to culture
- specific protection from racial discrimination
- a process and timeline for future acknowledgement of rights to self-determination.

"We are particularly concerned that the report has not recommended a referendum to remove the racially discriminatory Section 25 of the Constitution and the Federal Parliament's ability to make laws to the detriment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. How can we create a new human rights culture in Australia if racial discrimination against the First Peoples is still embedded in our founding document?

"Our hope is for another process towards addressing the unfinished business of Reconciliation – which could also resolve the unfinished business of the protection of the human rights of the First Peoples."

Media contacts:
Dr Janet Hunt: 0408 170 448
Peter Lewis: 0400 586 617

ANTaR is the only non-Indigenous national advocacy organisation dedicated specifically to the rights - and overcoming the disadvantage - of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.