Indigenous rights in Australia ‘embarrassing’: UN envoy
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UN special rapporteur Albert Barume said that indigenous people’s rights are “unsafe” in Australia because they are controlled by states and territories, not the national government.
PHOTO: AFP
- UN envoy Albert Barume said Indigenous rights in Australia are “embarrassing” after hearing of shackled births and high child detention, especially among Indigenous people.
- He said rights are “unsafe” because states and territories control them, and he criticised blocked access to detention centres in Queensland and the Northern Territory.
- Barume urged a national minimum criminal age of 14, more prevention programmes, and renewed action on First Nations recognition after the failed 2023 referendum.
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SYDNEY – Cases of indigenous women shackled while giving birth and growing numbers of children in detention are “embarrassing” to Australia, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on indigenous rights said on Nov 13.
UN special rapporteur Albert Barume said he visited Australia because he saw Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s attempt to recognise First Nations people in the Constitution as a sign of progress, despite a national referendum failing to pass in 2023.
Barume ended his two-week visit on Nov 13 with a bleak message that indigenous people’s rights are “unsafe” in Australia because they are controlled by states and territories, not the national government.
“The state of protection of indigenous people’s rights is a bit embarrassing. I heard the story of women giving birth shackled – I couldn’t believe it,” he told a news conference in Sydney.
Rights groups say the practice used for some women prisoners disproportionately impacts indigenous women, who experience higher rates of incarceration.
An indigenous lawmaker sought to introduce a Bill to stop the practice in the federal Parliament in August.
Australia’s international reputation was at stake, Barume said, after he was denied access to youth detention centres in Queensland state and the Northern Territory, which have the highest rates of indigenous youth incarceration.
Officials in these states also refused to meet him.
‘International scrutiny’
“If you cannot be subject to international scrutiny, you should not be in charge of human rights,” he said.
The national government should be “the sole and only duty bearer for human rights”, he added.
Over 90% of children in detention in Queensland and the Northern Territory are indigenous, government data shows.
Indigenous Australians make up 6.6% of the youth population, but 60% of children aged 10 to 17 in detention nationally. Among incarcerated children aged 10 to 13 years, 79% are indigenous.
Barume said Australia should establish a national minimum age of criminal responsibility of 14 years and invest in programmes to prevent crime instead of jailing “huge numbers” of children.
“First Peoples’ children require culturally appropriate care, protection, education, family and community support – not criminalisation,” he said.
The failure of a national referendum on indigenous recognition three years ago had “opened a floodgate of racism”, he said, urging Albanese’s government “not to abandon the idea”.
The Australian attorney-general’s office said the decision by Queensland and the Northern Territory not to cooperate with the UN envoy’s visit “does not reflect the position of the Albanese government”.
It said it was working with the states to implement Australia’s international obligations. AFP