A United Nations committee has raised concerns Western Australia's proposed new cultural heritage laws will "maintain the structural racism" of the system which allowed the destruction of 46,000 year-old culturally significant rock shelters at Juukan Gorge.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has written to the Australian government raising concerns about WA's draft laws, which are expected to pass state parliament next week.
It follows a complaint from the Aboriginal Heritage Action Alliance, a group of senior Aboriginal people from across the state who strongly oppose the new laws.
The laws promise "better protection" for Aboriginal cultural heritage, and are an update to the state's 1972 Aboriginal Heritage Act, which allowed mining company Rio Tinto to legally destroy the Juukan Gorge rock shelters 18 months ago.
But the Aboriginal Heritage Action Alliance made an official complaint to the UN body about the laws in September, concerned they will be incompatible with Australia's international obligations on racial discrimination, and the UN body has now formally responded.
It has called on the Australian government to consider engaging with the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to facilitate dialogue with Indigenous peoples, and seeks a response by the end of March.
"The Draft Bill allegedly fails to respect, protect and fulfil the right to culture of Aboriginal people who strongly oppose it, due to the serious risk it poses to their cultural heritage," said the letter from the committee's vice chair Marc Bossuyt.
The Aboriginal Heritage Action Alliance had raised concerns the consultation process had been inadequate, and the laws would give the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs too much discretion with no possibility of review, and no requirement for free, prior and informed consent of Aboriginal Traditional Owners.
"The discretionary power attributed to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs... will maintain the structural racism of the cultural heritage legal and policy scheme, which has already led to the destruction of Aboriginal cultural heritage in Western Australia," the letter said.
Human rights lawyer Hannah McGlade has called on the WA Government to delay the passing of the heritage laws, following intervention from a UN committee. Source: NITV The Point: Kearyn Cox
Calls to delay and reconsider laws
Human rights lawyer Dr Hannah McGlade welcomed the UN's intervention, and called on the Australian and state governments to engage with the expert body, and to reconsider the laws.
"We are very pleased to see that the UN has heard the voices of Aboriginal people and the real concerns in Western Australia," said Dr McGlade, a member of the UN's Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
"I don't recall such clear intervention by the UN in my state of WA before.
"This is a clear wake-up call to Australian state and federal governments to look seriously and respond to these human rights violations that are happening in WA."
A spokeswoman for the WA Aboriginal Affairs Minister said the government hadn't received the letter, and the laws are expected to pass parliament next week.
Comment has also been sought from the Federal Government.
