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To really give rights to Indigenous people we must first Close the Gap

2 April 2009 - AHRC - The historic formal statement of support from the federal government for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples occurring this Friday should be backed immediately with a comprehensive national action plan to Close the Gap in health equality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma said today.

Commissioner Calma, who is also the Chair of the Close the Gap steering committee and whose 2005 Social Justice Report spearheaded the Close the Gap Campaign, said the right to good health was a basic human right which was enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"The Close the Gap Campaign welcomes the government's commitment to endorse the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples," Commissioner Calma said.

"Formal support for the UN Declaration specifically protects the right of Indigenous peoples to participate in decision making in matters that affect their rights, and protects the right of Indigenous peoples to the highest standards of physical and mental health.

"It is also another milestone in the new partnership forged between Indigenous peoples and governments in February last year with the National Apology to the Stolen Generations.

"The Declaration clearly puts Indigenous Australians in the driving seat in relation to decisions which affect us in all areas of life, but the message is even clearer today on National Close the Gap Day," Commissioner Calma said.

"This Declaration gives us the scaffolding we need for our efforts to reject forever a passive acceptance of the brutal fact that Indigenous Australians are dying on average about 17 years earlier than non-Indigenous Australians.

"This Declaration should compel us to reject forever the conditions that allow twice as many Indigenous infants as non-Indigenous infants to die before their first birthday.

"It should motivate us to reject forever those conditions that allow cardiovascular disease to afflict around two and half times more Indigenous Australians than non-Indigenous and to stamp out an almost 400 per cent higher occurrence of respiratory disease for Indigenous Australians," he said.

Mr Calma said the Close the Gap Campaign partners, including Australia’s leading health, human rights and Aboriginal organisations, had already achieved significant outcomes in efforts to close the gap. These included the signing of the Close the Gap Statement of Intent in March last year where the federal government, the Opposition, and the Close the Gap Campaign partners (among others) committed to close the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by 2030. He also cited the development of the Close the Gap National Indigenous Health Equality targets in July last year; and the establishment of a National Indigenous Health Equality Council as other significant milestones.

"The Close the Gap Campaign welcomed the Council of Australian Government’s $1.6 billion funding injection into achieving health equality announced late last year," Mr Calma said.

"But we must use the Declaration to galvanise urgent action to further advance Indigenous health equality now while some key decisions are still to be made.

"The next step is to develop a comprehensive, long-term and properly resourced national action plan to achieve Indigenous health equality and to do it in genuine partnership with Indigenous peoples," he said.

"We cannot afford to squander this opportunity through poor planning or by not ensuring the participation of Indigenous peoples in the planning and implementation stages."

Media contacts: Louise McDermott (for Tom Calma)

Source: AHRC

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