I think ian MacDonald deserves a prize: for reigniting the fires of protest and for encouraging early interest in ATSI issues by the 32000 international media flocking to australia in 16 months. three cheers for ian macdonald! paul ---- Aborigines plan to protest new land rights laws at the UN February 14, 1999 Web posted at: 9:14 PM EST (0214 GMT) CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Australian legislation that restricts Aboriginal land rights breaches international law and is racially discriminatory, an Aboriginal leader said Sunday. Activists said they will take their case to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva next month. Prime Minister John Howard has insisted that the laws, which it pushed through parliament last year, recognize and protect Aboriginal land rights. But he said restrictions on Aboriginal rights are necessary to end the uncertainty miners and ranchers face on land title issues. Aborigines say the new laws expanded ranchers' rights at the expense of their rights, and eroded their previous right to negotiate with miners who want to dig on their tribal land. The land laws also drew criticism from the government's own Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. Gatjil Djerrkura, head of the commission, said his panel is preparing a report that mounts a powerful argument that the amendments to the Native Title Act "offend international standards." The report will be presented to the U.N. committee in Geneva. The U.N. committee, made up of international jurists, asked Australia last August to provide it with details of the new land rights laws and other policy changes that affect Australia's 353,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
