Media Release: Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney. Friday 12th December 2008

Sixty years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,                    . Rudd is human rights hypocrite.

Aboriginal leaders join National Day of Protest against Northern Territory Intervention

Tomorrow 10am: Across Australia (including Alice Springs), thousands of people will rally on Saturday, 13 December, to mark International Human Rights Day and protest the on-going violation of the human rights of Indigenous Australians, under the Rudd Government (details below).

This action has won widespread endorsement, including the NT Prescribed Area People's Alliance, ANTaR, NSW Reconciliation Council, Maritime Union Australia and Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union. (Please find full list attached)

"The Rudd government is guilty of human rights hypocrisy," said Monique Wiseman, Indigenous activist from Stop The Intervention Collective Sydney.

"While it celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the government has suspended the Racial Discrimination Act to impose government sanctioned discrimination against Aboriginal people. The government has ignored calls from the Human Rights Commission and its own Intervention review to re-instate the RDA.

The NT Intervention violates thirteen of the thirty articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They announce a review to establish a national Bill of Rights while they trample on the rights of Aboriginal people.

"Indigenous policy in this country is characterised by a blatant denial of self-determination. Almost a year ago, Kevin Rudd apologized to the Stolen generations, but the apology only highlights the hypocrisy of the government," said Wiseman

"These draconian Intervention measures do nothing but further entrench poverty, disadvantage and inequality in Indigenous communities," said Uncle Dootch Kennedy, Chair of the Illawarra Local Aboriginal Land Council. "

"CDEP is being scrapped. Welfare quarantining has taken us back to the ration days. Land leases are being coercively demanded in exchange for basic services. Indigenous communities are being stripped of their rights."

"Enough is enough. We call on the Federal Government to immediately abandon the NT Intervention and re-instate the racial Discrimination Act. It is also time for Australia to immediately adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples."

The Human Rights day demonstrations mark more than a year of protest against the Intervention. In February this year 2000 people marched on Parliament House demanding an end to the NT Intervention. In September 500 people traveled to Alice Springs to visit ‘prescribed communities' and hear the first-hand stories of suffering under the Intervention.

Action details Sydney: 10am the Block, Saturday 13th December. Speakers include Nicole Watson (Indigenous lawyer), Uncle Dootch Kennedy (Chair, Illawarra Local Aboriginal Land Council), Ben Cruse (Cultural Heritage Officer, Eden), Malcolm Tulloch (Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, NSW Branch), John Kaye (Greens MP) and George Newhouse (human rights lawyer).

Advance notice: A National Indigenous Rights Convergence on Canberra is planned for the opening of Parliament on 3 February 2009.

For more information contact:

Uncle Dootch Kennedy 0434 366 374 or Monique Wiseman 0415 410 558