So I know this is supposed to be all about Darfur – but forgive a brief detour to my Australian home – to celebrate another small step in the long road towards chipping away at 220 years of racism in Australia. Today the Australian government led by Prime Minister Rudd, signed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
This in itself should not be anything remarkable. The declaration contains such “radical” (note quotes for sarcasm) statements as – indigenous peoples and individuals are “free and equal” to all other peoples and individuals, and that indigenous people have all the “human rights and fundamental freedoms” that others do.
So why is my government’s decision to sign onto the bleeding obvious so extraordinary? Because in September 2007, when the General Assembly of the UN adopted this declaration, Australia was one of only four countries in the world to vote against it (the other three, to what I hope is their continuing shame, being the U.S. Canada and New Zealand).
The former Australian government’s rationale for this offensive vote? That signing the declaration would give Aboriginal Australians – wait for it – “an unfair advantage.” [Pause here for gasp of shock]
Anyone who has ever spent anything other than a 2-week tourist trip in Australia, or has watched any of the films that are belatedly being made about the ongoing legacy of Australian colonialism on the remaining indigenous population can confirm that even the most aggressive affirmative action policy in the world could not possibly bestow on indigenous Australians anything approaching an “unfair advantage”.
Signing onto a Declaration is of course only to put oneself at the starting line. The implementation is what counts. But at least we are set on the right path.
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