Stolen Generations survivors continue to be disadvantaged when the rights of Indigenous peoples are not embedded in law across the country, advocates say.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007, with Australia endorsing it two years later.
In November 2023, after a 12-month process, the Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs inquiry into UNDRIP recommended the Commonwealth ensure all legislation and policy "be consistent with the Articles outlined" in the declaration, and establish an independent process of truth-telling and agreement-making "to support healing and assist implementation".
But none of those recommendations have been implemented, despite calls from Aboriginal leaders across the country.
This week, the Healing Foundation — which amplifies the voices of Stolen Generations survivors and their families — said the failure to implement UNDRIP continues to have a profound and lasting impact on survivors, often described as the "gap within the gap" for Indigenous Australians.
Despite Australia's obligations under international human rights conventions, the foundation says the failure to implement UNDRIP denies survivors the "protections, remedies and dignity they are owed".
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The organisation is calling for immediate action to align Australia's systems with its commitments under UNDRIP, chief executive Shannon Dodson said.
Its priorities include nationally consistent, UN-aligned reparations, guaranteed trauma-informed access to records across jurisdictions and institutions, investment in Aboriginal-led community-controlled aged care and healing services, embedding UNDRIP in key legislation, including the Aged Care Act, and sustainable long-term funding for Stolen Generations organisations.
The Yawuru woman says Australia signed up to UNDRIP 17 years ago and now it "must act on it".
"Stolen Generations survivors are ageing," she said. "Time is running out. Without urgent, coordinated action, intergenerational trauma will deepen and continue to shape outcomes for decades."
Last year, Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss, along with former Social Justice Commissioners Mick Dodson, Tom Calma, Mick Gooda and June Oscar, and former MPs Ken Wyatt, Linda Burney and Patrick Dodson, called on the government to respond to the committee's report by November, the two-year anniversary of it being handed down.
The government did not respond by that deadline.
"All the recommendations are critical to the implementation of the declaration," Commissioner Kiss at the time.
"Every target that is captured within the Closing the Gap agreement is a human right, and the fact that we have to have targets in place to try to force governments into addressing these human rights issues shows that we've had a breach or a non-realisation of those rights."
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The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Albert K. Barume, will visit Australia later this year to assess how the country is upholding the rights of First Nations people, including compliance with international human rights obligations.
Ms Dodson said the visit was a critical opportunity to move beyond endorsement and towards delivery, noting only six per cent of the 83 recommendations from the Bringing them home report have been implemented.
"We cannot allow more survivors to pass without justice," she said. "The UN visit is a critical opportunity for Australia to finally meet its international obligations."
She said for too long, "survivors have carried the burden of government inaction".
"Embedding UNDRIP into all policies that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is essential, so survivors can heal with dignity, and so future generations never face the harms of forced removal again," Ms Dodson added.
