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Australia backs UN Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples

The Australian government takes another step for the recognition of its indigenous population · Some pro-indigenous sectors see the move as “hypocritical” · Australia, together with the US, Canada and New Zealand, was among the states that had not backed the Declaration · New Zealand could follow in the footsteps of its neighbor.

UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is coming closer to a world consensus after Australia's announcement to back it. Indigenous inhabitants from Australia -consisting mainly of Aborigines and the Torres Strait islanders- amounts to 1,5 % of the total population. They have suffered the effects of the European colonization for centuries.

The indigenous from Australia have been long excluded by the government -the State policy known as the stolen generations persisted until the 70's-, and even today they have the worst ratings in the whole continent on a number of social indicators.

Election in 2007 of Labour candidate Kevin Rudd as Australian Prime Minister marked the beginning of the recognition of indigenous peoples by the Administration. Rudd performed in Parliament an historic event on 13th February 2008 in which he officially apologized to Aborigines and Torres Strait islanders for the policies of assimilation pursued by Australian governments from the beginning of the 20th century until the 1970s and against the so-called lost generations. Rudd's government has now taken a step further by announcing its support to the Declaration, thus disassociating the country from Canada, USA and New Zealand.

The Minister for indigenous affairs, Jenny Macklin, said that behind the position change there is a "spirit of resetting the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians", and added that it is "another important step to make sure the flawed policies of the past will never be revisited."

The news has been welcomed by UN experts and the indigenous peoples. However, several representatives of the Aborigines and the Torres Strait islanders have labeled the government measure as hypocritical, as they argue that the declaration will make little difference to Aborigines while the intervention in indigenous Northern Territory communities continues.

New Zealand could be next
New Zealand, another country which was also critical with the Declaration in the past, announced last week its predisposition to "look at the way the Australian government interprets the declaration and see whether its interpretation may be applicable in New Zealand". Considering that both countries put forward similar arguments against the endorsement of the Declaration in 2007 -they argued it was not compatible with their Constitutions-, Wellington could soon follow in the footsteps of Canberra.

Picture: Map of Australian aboriginal peoples, taken from Melbourne Indymedia (click here for further detail).

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