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It's Time for a Treaty

This Treaty should be concluded by 26 January 2001 (Invasion Day in the Centenary of Australian Federation) as a symbolic date for negotiated settlement between the nation and the Indigenous Peoples.

We remind the United Kingdom Government and citizens that at no time have Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples been asked or given the freedom to accept or reject the Constitution of Australia or citizenship of the nation.

We remind the United Kingdom Government and citizens that they caused Aboriginal Peoples' and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' dispossession from 1788, and bestowed independence to the Australian colonies from 1901.

And now the United Kingdom Government and citizens fail to reconcile their atrocious deeds because they fail to advocate the restoration of Aboriginal Peoples' and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' human rights including legal ownership of the lands.

Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have not received the equal treatment and rights afforded to other Peoples of the Commonwealth who have now gained independence and self-determination through the process of de-colonisation.

The crimes and evils of racism have not been washed away by time and events.

This is a contemporary predicament, where injustice prevails, where the plunder and profit is sacred, where the dispossessed Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples remain oppressed in their own country.

Since 1991 the Australian Government has publicised its desire for Reconciliation between Government and the Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples by 2001.

The Australian Government has not made the necessary commitment to negotiate in good faith with the Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

The Australian Constitution Act was passed by the United Kingdom Government in 1900 with manifest intent to discriminate against Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and deny their recognition as Australian citizens.

The Constitution of Australia still stands as both a real and symbolic instrument of racial oppression, dispossession and social segregation of Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

The Australian nation is considering Constitutional change as a benchmark of 100 years of independent government, but the nation is pre-occupied with less fundamental issues in the Constitution than the nation's institutionalised racism and racial oppression.

We call for a Treaty signed between the Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and the Government of Australia by 2001.

We petition the United Kingdom Government and the Peoples of the United Kingdom to guarantee human rights by strongly advocating this Treaty.

Its time for the United Kingdom to act with responsibility.

It's time for a Treaty.

United Kingdom Supporters

Trade Union Congress (TUC) Race Relations Committee, UNISON National Black Members Committee, RMT Black & Ethnic Minority Committee, National Assembly Against Racism, Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation, Roland Biosah Chair 1999 Black Workers Conference, European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights, 1990 Trust, Professor Germaine Greer, Charles Lane, Dr Greg & Sally Williams, Dr John Wentworth, Keith Vaz MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, John Pilger, Bob Perkins, Ros Poignant, Jeff & Fiona Waters, Bob Perkins, Lee Jasper.

The above advert was placed inThe Independent (UK)

Further information: british responsibility issues page - includes news index and external links

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