Amnesty censures Australian rights abuses

The Amnesty International rights group has slammed Australia for rights violations against Aboriginals in the country as well as asylum seekers held off shores, saying indigenous kids are 24 times more likely to be arrested than their non-native peers.

In a scathing report released on Wednesday, Amnesty censured Canberra’s complacency amid numerous incidents of rights abuses, urging it to do more in respecting human rights at home and abroad.

“Our government can’t be saying one thing on the one hand and commit to some human rights agendas such as global abolition of the death penalty, while carrying out policies of deliberate abuse and staying shamefully silent in the face of atrocities on the other,” said Claire Mallinson, the national director at Amnesty International Australia, following the report’s publication.

The Amnesty report slammed the Australian justice system’s treatment of Aborigines, who make up nearly three percent of the country’s total population of 24 million but continue to remain among the most disadvantaged citizens.

According to the report, the rate of the imprisonment of indigenous adults across Australia is 15 times higher than that of non-Aboriginal adults.

The report came shortly after an official admission by the country’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who said last week that Canberra was failing in the efforts to improve the lives of the Aboriginals. He pointed to a report showing that the government had missed key targets, including decreasing child mortality and increasing life expectancy.

SS