GENEVA, Switzerland (CU)_The Australian government is being challenged over the country’s high rates of incarceration of indigenous peoples, at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this week.
As the Pacific Island nation is set to be subject to a Universal Periodic Review hearing, it is reported that Sweden and Uruguay have submitted questions in advance, regarding the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australian prisons, since these indigenous people account for 29 per cent of the prisoner population in Australia, but just 3.3 per cent of the country’s general population.
Moreover, the United Kingdom has also raised its concerned regarding the matter, inquiring on Canberra’s plans to “work with, and listen to, Indigenous elders and leaders to provide a national voice to parliament for Indigenous people”.
Meanwhile, the Australian Government says that it has made “significant achievements in the realisation of human rights” since the previous review in 2015, which includes its commitment to address issues of human trafficking and modern slavery, family and domestic violence, as well as the legalisation of same-sex marriage.
Last week, Human Rights Watch, an international human rights organisation, published its annual global report on human rights abuses, and in its chapter on Australia, the organisation noted that the Pacific island nation’s global reputation on human rights suffered from “the government’s failure to address longstanding abuses against First Nations people”.
With Indigenous Australians being overrepresented in the criminal justice system, Human Rights Watch made several recommendations that would enable the Australian government to reduce Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration rates. These recommendations included ending over-policing of Indigenous communities, repealing punitive bail laws and mandatory sentencing laws, decriminalising public drunkenness, and raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14.
The Australian director at Human Rights Watch, Elaine Pearson, said the global Black Lives Matter movement last year, refocused the attention on systemic racism and inequality against Indigenous Australians, “particularly high death rates in custody, and overrepresentation in prisons”.
“Australian federal and state governments need to urgently prioritise reforming longstanding policies that discriminate against First Nations people,” she noted.
