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1) Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD): additional information to Australia's 10th, 11th and 12th periodic reports under CERD, March 2000;

1. The Committee considered the tenth, eleventh and twelfth periodic reports of Australia, submitted as one document (CERD/C/335/Add.2), at its 1393rd, 1394th and 1395th meetings (CERD/C/SR.1393, 1394 and 1395), held on 21 and 22 March 2000. At its 1398th meeting, held on 24 March 2000, it adopted the following concluding observations.

Freedom Day is the name given to the annual commemoration of the Wave Hill Walk Off. The 40th anniversary of the Walk-off was held in late August 2006.

In 2006, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner conducted a national survey of Indigenous Australians living on Indigenous land. There were 54 survey respondents, which included traditional land owners, as well as other Indigenous Australians with interests in land and land-use. The survey questions asked Indigenous respondents to identify their aspirations for…

In 2006, the Australian Government added a new section 19A to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Cth) (ALRA) to provide that (with Ministerial consent) a Land Trust may grant a 99-year headlease over an Aboriginal township to an approved entity of the Commonwealth or the Northern Territory Government.

The federal Government has made a commitment to ‘normalise’ Indigenous communities by increasing Indigenous home ownership and reducing reliance on subsidised rental accommodation.

Specific examples The Memorandum of Understanding between the Minerals Council of Australia, the Australian Government and the East Kimberley Regional Partnership Agreement, discussed in Chapter 3 of the report, describes a collaborative approach to support Indigenous economic development in eight trial sites across Australia.

This, my first report under s209 of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) (NTA), is part of a larger project that commenced prior to my appointment as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner in July 2004. The project aims to investigate how native title can be utilised to improve the economic and social conditions of Indigenous peoples' lives.

During the 2004 reporting period I have embarked on a series of consultations focusing on the ideas and principles that were contained in a Discussion Paper, released by my predecessor as Social Justice Commissioner in June 2003. The Discussion Paper was entitled Promoting Economic and Social Development through Native Title (at Annexure 1). This chapter seeks to record and develop the ideas and…

The framework of principles presented in chapter 2 of this Report puts the economic and social development of the traditional owner group at the centre of the native title process. It seeks to build the power and capacity of the traditional owner group to direct and achieve its own economic and social development. It sees the native title system as a tool to assist traditional owners in this…

This paper considers how the native title system might operate more effectively to assist traditional owner groups realise their goals for economic and social development. It relies on human rights principles to build a framework for economic and social development. This framework integrates ethical principles, such as equality and respect for Indigenous culture, with the economic and social…

...the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner report on the operation of the [NTA] and its effect on the exercise and enjoyment of human rights of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders.

The Native Title Report 2003 evaluates native title as a framework for economic and social development for traditional owner groups. While the legal framework for native title restricts its capacity to improve economic and social conditions for Indigenous people, the Report recognises that the native title agreement-making process provides an invaluable opportunity for States and Territories to…

This is my fifth report to the Australian parliament on the effect of the Native Title Act 1993 on the human rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. In these five years of reporting my main focus has been on the legislative and judicial developments in native title law and the effect of these developments on the recognition of Indigenous rights to land. I have also followed the…

Australia is a wealthy nation. In 2003, Australia ranked fourth in the United Nations Human Development Index (1) indicating Australians enjoyed one of the highest qualities of life in the world. Overall, Australia ranks equal fourth with the highest life expectancy at birth (79.0 years) suggesting Australians are among the healthiest people in the world. (2)

Human rights principles require that Indigenous people's relationships to land, based on traditional laws and customs, be given legal recognition and protection. International legal principles also recognise that Indigenous peoples have economic, social and cultural human rights. Native title, as it is constructed through the Australian legal system, has a limited capacity to meet these human…

The failure in Australia to perceive native title and land rights as the basis on which to address Indigenous economic and social development has been evident at legal, policy and administrative levels. Legally, the increasingly narrow interpretation of native title by the High Court has, as Noel Pearson has pointed out, stripped native title of much economic meaning or benefit.

The year under review in this, my fourth Native Title Report, is a year in which the High Court has handed down its decision in several significant native title cases thus elucidating the principles upon which the recognition and extinguishment of native title are determined. 2002 marks the end of a ten year period since the Mabo decision [1] first introduced the dual concepts of recognising and…

Native title is an intersection of two different legal systems and cultures. The way in which Australia chooses to give recognition to the relationship that Indigenous people have with their land, and the range of options it considers to express that relationship, are matters that affect the human rights of Indigenous people.

The two recent High Court decisions in Miriuwung Gajerrong [1] and Wilson v Anderson [2] have clarified some important issues regarding the extinguishment of native title under the Native Title Act 1993 (Cwlth) (‘NTA’) and its relationship with extinguishment under the common law. They also provide some important insights into the meaning of discrimination as it responds…