Northern Territory intervention

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:31:56 +1100

In early 2007, following a series of revelations about the level of child sex abuse in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, the previous Federal Government announced and legislated for the implementation of a series of emergency measures. This became known as the Northern Territory Emergency Intervention. You can read the key legislation that introduced this intervention on the Australian Parliamentary Library Indigenous Affairs website, under Northern Territory Emergency Intervention.

In March 2009, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination requested that the Federal Government take urgent action to ensure that this new legislation complied with the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.

The Human Rights Law Centre wrote a letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Minister for Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin on 10 November 2009 urging them to immediately reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) to apply to all measures of the Northern Territory Intervention.

If you have a reader's card for the State Library of NSW, you can find more articles in the media on Proquest ANZ Newsstand dealing with the Northern Territory Intervention. Type in "northern territory intervention". They include:

"The Northern Territory intervention and the Racial Discrimination Act" by Renata Grossi (2009) 31 (3) LegalDate 11-13;
"Response and responsibility" by Richard Mohr (2009) 7 (11) Indigenous Law Bulletin 15-18; and
"downunderallover:developments around the country" (2009) 34 (2) Alternative Law Journal 129-136

Indigenous peoples

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:41:02 +1100

LIAC has just published Hot Topics 68: Indigenous peoples which discusses the treatment of Indigenous peoples in domestic and international law, examining case studies from the US and Canada; the Sami people (Norway, Sweden and Finland); the Mapuche in Chile; New Zealand and Australia. Includes sections on Australian land rights and native title and reproduces in full the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recently given recognition by Australia.

Written by Larissa Behrendt, Professor of Law and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology, Sydney. This Hot Topic is available at your local public library and possibly at your school library.

HSC Legal Studies: News Watch - Indigenous Peoples

Northern Territory intervention

Indigenous peoples