Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak out about human rights violations. The Greens believe that universal human rights are fundamental and that they must be respected in all countries and for all people. That includes criticising our own government here in Australia when we believe that we should be doing more to protect human rights and there is certainly more that we can be doing. I want to particularly mention the universal periodic review, which is the UN Human Rights Council human rights review process that occurs every five years. Australia has recently appeared before the UPR working group.

I want to mention particularly the issue that was highlighted by a coalition of non-government organisations in their report that was submitted as part of the UPR process. They said:

The growing Black Lives and Aboriginal Lives Matter movements have drawn fresh attention to the long struggle of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to address systemic racism, police brutality, and deaths in custody.

A crucial issue here is the longstanding community-led campaign to raise the age of legal responsibility. More than two dozen countries, through the UPR process, have pressured Australia to raise the age of legal responsibility. The current minimum age of legal responsibility across the country is only 10. Ten-year-olds are children. In 2019 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended the age should be increased to at least 14, and Australia has repeatedly failed to act on this issue. This low age of legal responsibility particularly hurts First Nations children. While First Nations young people make up only six per cent of young people aged between 10 and 17, they make up approximately 57 per cent of those in youth detention. This is not because they commit more crime but because they are over-targeted, over-policed and punished more harshly and more often than their non-First Nations counterparts.

So, as well as human rights in Australia, we call for action by governments all around the world to protect human rights wherever attacks on human rights occur. Sadly, I want to start in India, where the government is increasingly undermining human rights. In its 2020 report, Freedom House said:

The Indian government has taken its Hindu nationalist agenda to a new level with a succession of policies that abrogate the rights of different segments of its Muslim population, threatening the democratic future of a country long seen as a potential bulwark of freedom in Asia and the world.

Concerningly, these steps by the Indian government will have implications and do have implications for the sustainability of democracy. Freedom House said:

… the BJP has distanced itself from the country's founding commitment to pluralism and individual rights, without which democracy cannot long survive.

Sadly, we've seen that shift towards nationalism and a willingness to undermine human rights play out in multiple areas. We're particularly concerned that Amnesty International India was forced to close its offices. I have spoken previously about our concerns for the farmers protesting for their rights and the need to protect them from corporations exploiting small farmers. We affirm our solidarity with those farmers and their right to protest. I also want to particularly mention the case of Disha Ravi, a young activist who was recently detained, which reflects a worrying pattern of attacking environmental activists. I'm calling for the Indian government to ensure that she has the full protection of the law and is not persecuted simply because the government is sensitive about her environmental activism.

In another concerning instance of human rights being undermined, I want to particularly mention a new report by Amnesty International titled Old ghosts in new garb: Sri Lanka's return to fear. As the executive summary of that report states:

The Sri Lankan government has launched a renewed crackdown on dissent. Civil society organizations and human rights defenders are under renewed attack by the Government and face numerous challenges to operate freely and safely. In only a year after a new government came into power in 2019, the authorities have escalated this into a full assault on dissent where a climate of fear and censorship has quickly expanded around the country, targeting key voices critical of the government and human rights defenders.

That concern for the ability of human rights defenders to dissent, to protest and to speak up matches what I've heard from community groups here in Australia.

Tonight I want to particularly thank the range of community organisations and their representatives who took the time to meet with me in Melbourne recently and share their profound concerns about what's been happening in Sri Lanka. They particularly raised concerns about forced cremations of COVID-19 victims. Despite a recent announcement by Sri Lanka's Prime Minister that the forced cremation policy would no longer apply, the government appears to have backtracked. As Human Rights Watch noted:

But despite the pledge, the government has continued to forcibly cremate Muslims and is backtracking by claiming the policy can only be changed following deliberations by an expert committee.

I also want to mention a particular issue that the community groups raised with me about the destruction of a monument to Tamils killed in the conflict. I'm concerned about the destruction of this monument and the threat to erase the memory of those who have died. I want to particularly mention some of the words that were shared with me in my meeting last week, as they're incredibly powerful. They said: 'This wasn't just a monument built with stones, cement and sand. It was a painstakingly crafted structure, depicting skulls and lifeless bodies with hands reaching out to heavens for the protection from the rain of artillery shells. The monument bore no names or numbers. Built 10 years after the end of the war, the sculptor's sole purpose was to convey the indescribable agony inflicted on the people by the tyranny of war. It was an artwork with a message for both the victors and the vanquished.' I say to those community groups, who are very concerned about Sri Lanka: we see you and we hear you, and we call upon the Sri Lankan government to reverse these policies and to protect the human rights of all of its citizens. And we urge our Australian government, particularly Minister Payne, to raise this issue with our Sri Lankan counterparts at both ambassadorial and ministerial level.

I now want to highlight the human rights situation in Pakistan—in particular the disappearance of Idris Khattak, a human rights defender and a former consultant with Amnesty International. He worked extensively on forced disappearances, which makes what has happened to him even more concerning. He was taken in November 2019. It has only been very recently that the authorities have confirmed that he's in their custody. He must receive a fair process and not be held indefinitely under their official secrets act. His family have only recently had access to him and he's at risk of COVID-19 in the prison.

In particular, I want to share the words of his brave daughter, Talia Khattak:

My father, Idris Khattak, a devoted human rights defender and the most selfless man I know, was forcibly disappeared on 13 November 2019.

…   …   …

My father is not a case file. He is a human being who cannot be wiped away like an inconvenient streak of dirt. He is a person … and he deserves the protection of the law.

We call upon the government of Pakistan to address this issue. They should immediately release Idris Khattak unless there is sufficient credible evidence that he has committed an internationally recognised offence. In the meantime, they should ensure that he's remanded by a civilian, not a military, court and granted a fair trial quickly. Finally, we urge the government of Pakistan to sign the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance because, despite public commitments in 2019, that has not yet occurred. It would be a welcome step.

I also want to thank the Kurdish community groups that I met with recently. We're particularly concerned about the arrest of Kurdish mayors in Turkey. I would like to note here the comments from Human Rights Watch that the Erdogan government refuses to distinguish between the PKK and the democratically elected Peoples' Democratic Party, which won 11.7 per cent of the national vote in the 2018 parliamentary elections and was elected in 65 local municipalities in the 2019 local elections. Former party co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag have been in detention since November 2016. Turkey has refused to comply with the 2020 European Court of Human Rights ruling that Demirtas should be released immediately. We call upon the Turkish government to protect human rights and ensure due process for all its citizens and for those whom it has imprisoned and to not use criminal prosecutions for political purposes.