Category: Indigenous Rights

This week the 78th Session of the General Assembly in New York began

Senator the Hon Penny Wong, Minister for Foreign Affairs, attends the opening the High- level General Debate of the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly. The Minister was joined by Assistant Minister McAllister, DFAT Secretary Jan Adams, Ambassador James Larsen, Mr Rob Mitchell MP Member for McEwen, Mr Andrew Wallace MP Member for Fisher […]

Australia: Groundbreaking decision creates pathway for climate justice on Torres Strait Islands

© Karl Bouro Yessie Mosby, one of the Torres Straits Eight climate activists, speaking at the Sydney Biennale. Facebook Twitter Print Email 23 September 2022Human Rights The UN Human Rights Committee found on Friday that Australia’s failure to adequately protect indigenous Torres Islanders against climate change impacts, has violated their rights to enjoy their culture, free from “arbitrary interference” with […]

Australia’s First Nations incarceration epidemic: origins of overrepresentation and a path forward

In 2020, a wave of Black Lives Matter movements unfolded across the globe. These movements re-focused a spotlight on Australia’s fraught relationship with its First Peoples. In particular, the movements increased community awareness of the disturbing reality that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (which I will refer to as First Nations peoples) are the […]

Two indigenous languages are dying every month: UN Assembly President

World Bank/Curt Carnemark A group of women in traditional clothing, Kenya. Despite UN efforts throughout this International Year of Indigenous Languages to highlight the daily disappearance of mother tongues across the world, the President of the General Assembly (PGA) warned on Tuesday that “challenges persist nonetheless”. “Every fortnight, at least one indigenous language vanishes from the face […]

Youth, indigenous peoples, migrants and refugees boost hope for human rights: Guterres

  People’s rights are under fire “in many parts of the globe,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Human Rights Council on Monday, before insisting that he was not “losing hope”, thanks to the progress made by powerful grassroots movements for social justice. Addressing the Geneva-based forum on the opening day of its 40th session, Mr. Guterres underlined the Council’s […]