By Amy McQuire
NATIONAL, April 3, 2009: The Rudd government has officially endorsed the landmark United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, reversing the position of the previous government and fulfilling a key election promise.
Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin delivered a statement in support of the document at Parliament House this morning, saying that the move was a step forward in “re-setting” the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
“The Declaration gives us new impetus to work together in trust and good faith to advance human rights and close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians,” Ms Macklin said.
“The Declaration recognises the legitimate entitlement of Indigenous peoples to all human rights – based on principles of equality, partnership, good faith and mutual benefit.”
The Declaration is an aspirational document and aims to safeguard, under international law, the rights of the world’s estimated 370 million Indigenous peoples.
It took more than two decades of drafting before the document finally passed the UN General Assembly with a near unanimous vote in September 2007.
The only four member states to vote against the Declaration were Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.
The Howard government at the time claimed the Declaration would be divisive and elevate customary law above national law.
It also emerged that Prime Minister John Howard had personally lobbied the then newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to oppose the Declaration in 2006. Canada had previously been a strong supporter.
Reversing the position of the Howard government on the Declaration was a controversial election promise for the ALP, which claimed that if it won government it would be guided by the Declaration’s principles.
Ms Macklin today said that the declaration needed to be “considered in its totality”.
UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and Australian of the Year Professor Mick Dodson said the government should not be afraid of the contents of the declaration, adding that Australians should embrace it as a framework for policy.
Prof Dodson also said that supporting human rights was not a barrier to progress.
“Human rights do not dispossess people. Human rights do not marginalize people. Human rights do not cause problems. Human rights do not cause poverty. Human rights do not cause life expectancy gaps,” Prof Dodson said.
“It is the denial of rights that is the largest contributor to these things.”