Government UN vote exposes racist NT intervention

Green Left - Government UN vote exposes racist NT intervention: "A motion moved by Australian Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett calling on the government to support the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people was voted down in the Senate on September 10. This comes at a time when the Northern Territory intervention by the Howard Government has started to put “boots on the ground” in the NT, with few results reported from the mainstream media and serious criticism from Aboriginal and human rights groups. Bartlett attacked the Howard government for its opposition to the declaration. “The federal government has failed this key test of showing genuine commitment to rights for Indigenous people, rather than just using them as a vehicle for political point-scoring and power grabs”, Bartlett said, addressing the Senate. “After a decade of the Coalition government trashing UN conventions and belittling rights, they repeatedly evoked the Convention on the Rights of the Child to justify their Northern Territory intervention”, he added. The UN declaration was passed by the General Assembly on September 14 and has been in formation for the last 20 years. It was planned to be a benchmark for the ways in which nations treat their indigenous peoples but several influential nations, including Australia, the US and Canada, are violently opposed to the declaration."