The Effectiveness of the Law in Achieving Justice for Indigenous People

The Effectiveness of the Law in Achieving Justice for Indigenous People

In relation to Australia, the term ‘Indigenous peoples’ refers to two

distinct cultures of people who inhabited the land prior to European

settlement – The Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islanders. This

population declined dramatically over the 19th and early 20th century

due to the introduction of new diseases from European settlement,

Government policies of dispersal and dispossession, the era of

protection, assimilation and integration causing a cultural disruption

and disintegration of the Indigenous peoples. In the 20th century the

recognition and protection of Indigenous peoples land rights and human

rights have been at the forefront of Global Issues where the

International community has sought to address the issues and ratify

Human Rights and Land Rights for Indigenous People as a legitimate

subject to be implemented into international law and the domestic law

of member states such as Australia. To evaluate the effectiveness of

the law in achieving justice for Indigenous Australians we must look

at the Australian Legal System, and the extent to which it addresses

it’s obligations to International Law in relation to Australia’s

Indigenous People.

In evaluating the Legal System’s response to Indigenous People and

it’s achieving of justice, an outline of the history of Indigenous

Australians - before and during settlement - as well as their status

in Australian society today must be made. The dispossession of their

land and culture has deprived Indigenous People of economic revenue

that the land would have provided if not colonised, as well as their

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...Australians by not clarifying it’s stance on it’s

international obligations to Indigenous Australians or reflecting it’s

international rhetoric and signature on UN conventions by implementing

some in domestic law. This inadequacy in the development of Indigenous

Peoples Land Rights in Australia has been declared by the Working

Group on Indigenous Populations in July 1997, and highlights the

Australian government policy regarding Indigenous Peoples Land Rights

and may be argued as a denial of justice for Indigenous People by the

Australian legal system. Australia can be said to be ineffective in

achieving justice for Indigenous People due to it’s failure to

recognise Indigenous Australians rights to land domestically by

failing the Human Rights standards contained in international

initiatives to which it is a signatory.