The Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) is an annual meeting at the UN Headquarters in Geneva focussing on Indigenous people's rights under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other international treaties.
The Forum provides Indigenous people globally with expert advice, delivered by Indigenous experts, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. The EMRIP makes a set of proposals at the conclusion of the meeting to the Human Rights Council as matter for further consideration.
This month I attended, invited by the UN to present on the issue of Aboriginal child removals, some years ago having authored a request for an in-country visit to Western Australia hosted by the Noongar Family Safety Wellbeing Council to investigate this.
The EMRIP country visit is a new method in human rights that involves a dialogue approach with states and Indigenous peoples in response to violations of human rights. To conduct the visit, the member state needs to agree to the dialogue.
It was disappointing to advise EMRIP and the attendees that the situation has largely not improved since the country visit to WA and that Australian governments appeared to have lack of regard to its important recommendations.
EMRIP called for an Aboriginal Children's Commissioner be appointed by the WA government, and noted the need for investment into culturally proper preventative responses and the responsibility for child welfare to be delegated to Aboriginal organisations.
The new Aboriginal Representative Organisations (AROs) are a step in the right direction but the decisions about Aboriginal children remain with the Department and there is an ongoing issue about the lack of cultural lens in these decisions.
At a later meeting with the UN experts who led the in-country visit, I conveyed my concern that the focus of Australia's participation at the meeting was economic empowerment and not human rights issues important to our people.
DFAT is focused on using their international diplomacy to facilitate business and trade opportunities. While this is great for Indigenous businesses, it does little to address the dire situation facing Aboriginal children across the country. And whilst actively taking part in international forums, Australia has not made progress towards the implementation of the Declaration and across the continent, Australia is going backwards on criminal justice laws targeting Aboriginal kids.
This is the subject of an Early Warning Urgent Action request to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Race Discrimination highlighting systemic race discrimination inherent in the wave of laws pushed under 'tough on crime' rhetoric. The UNCERD, the Special Rapporteur on Torture, and the Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples have all now written to Australia seeking responses.
As the Uluru Youth delegation made clear at EMRIP, Aboriginal people have been denied a national representative Voice since the referendum was interpreted by the Albanese government as a red light for Indigenous peoples' rights. The First Nations Disability Alliance also advocated strongly on systemic discrimination, including in relation to criminal justice and incarceration.
The Forum heard from the Australian government represented by the Ambassador for First Nations people Mr Justin Mohammed. In announcing the establishment of the position, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said the Ambassador and his office "will work in genuine partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to progress Indigenous rights globally, and help grow First Nations trade and investment", and that this will mean that Australia will have dedicated Indigenous representation in international engagement. But instead, what we've found is DFAT liaises less with Indigenous representatives and everything relating to Indigenous issues is now filtered through a single office.
The Ambassador had not engaged substantively with the important EMRIP Country visit engagement to Australia. His interventions promoted government policy such as the First Nations Clean Energy policy, which falls short of legislative reform required to ensure Aboriginal people's equitable access to the opportunities that may arise out of this phase of climate adaptation. Indeed, it's striking that the research and stories told by Indigenous communities globally is noticeably cautious and nuanced than the glowing accounts of clean energy opportunities in Australia.
At the closing I was happy to hear the meeting proposals included Indigenous peoples' rights and child welfare systems, as well as States' engagement with EMRIP. These important issues deserve the utmost international attention of EMRIP and the Human Rights Council, especially as we're seeing even more Aboriginal children removed - and incarcerated - across the country, and knowing that Closing the Gap policy commitments are a failure in this area and beyond, not that you would hear this from the Ambassador for First Nations People.
Dr Hannah McGlade is a Kurin Minang human rights expert, law academic and member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
