WGAR: News of Intervention walk-off by the Alyarwarra Nation at Ampilatwatja Community

WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)

26 AUG 09: INTERVENTION WALK-OFF COMMUNITY SEEKS UN SUPPORT

WGAR website: http://wgar.info/

Contents:
Intervention Walk-off Community seeks UN support
Welcome to the Ampilatwatja walk off blog site
Updated NT Intervention complaint sent to United Nations
Visit by UN Expert, James Anaya
Alice Springs Aboriginal Town Camps takeover
Stolen Wages Campaign - Petition of Support
Other Aboriginal articles

INTERVENTION WALK-OFF COMMUNITY SEEKS UN SUPPORT:

- Media Release

Intervention walkoff's Blog:
We are refugees in our own country
http://interventionwalkoff.wordpress.com/media-releases/
23 Aug 09: "Formal request made to the United Nations
Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights to register us as
refugees with the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner,
under the International Refugee Convention. ... Aboriginal
people had no other option but to walk off the Prescribed
Area, thereby removing them from being subject to the NTER
legislation, and which additionally accords them the status
of being internally displaced refugees. “We no longer have
any rights to exist as humans in our own country and are
outcasts in our own community”, says Richard Downs,
spokesperson for the Alyawarra elders. ... "

- Letter

Intervention walkoff's Blog:
Dear Professor Anaya
[scroll down page] http://interventionwalkoff.wordpress.com/statements/
20 Aug 09: "Dear Professor Anaya. Today, across the
Northern Territory, and since 2007, Indigenous people are
facing a path of destruction through the denial of our
basic human rights under the Federal government’s
intervention. The Aboriginal people of Ampilatwatja,
comprising 30 elders and members of the Alyawarra nation,
walked off their community in July in protest against, and
to remove themselves from, the Australian governments
Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) legislation,
which has subjected them to martial law, exercised by a
military junta, since its enactment in 2007. ... " Richard
Downs

- Statement

Intervention walkoff's Blog:
Richard Downs, August 23, 2009
[scroll down page] http://interventionwalkoff.wordpress.com/statements/
23 Aug 09: "We seek the support of the UN Special
Rapporteur, Prof. James Anaya, and other international
human rights bodies, to advise the Australian Government to
recognize that, under Article 1, Indigenous people have the
rights to the full enjoyment, as a collective or as
individuals, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms
as recognized in the charter of the United Nations, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international
human rights law; and Article 27, ... "

- Radio

CAAMA Radio afternoon news
(Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association):
http://caama.com.au/radio/caama-radio-afternoon-news-25th-of-august-2009/
25 Aug 09: "Aboriginal people in the N.T. claiming refugee
status"

- News

ABC: Aboriginal people seek refugee status
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/26/2667066.htm
26 Aug 09: "A group of Aboriginal people has asked the
United Nations to register them as refugees, saying the
Northern Territory intervention has made them outcasts in
their own country. Richard Downs, a spokesperson for the
Alyawarra Nation, which represents about 4000 people in
central Australia, says the request was handed to the
United Nations special rapporteur, who was visiting the
Northern Territory last week."

Reuters [US]: Australia Aborigines ask UN for refugee status
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSYD414720
25 Aug 09: "A group of Australian Aborigines asked the
United Nations on Wednesday for refugee status, claiming
special emergency laws to curb alcohol and sexual abuse in
the remote outback have turned them into outcasts at home.
... "We've got no say at all. We feel like an outcast in
our community, refugees in our own country," Downs told
state radio."

WELCOME TO THE AMPILATWATJA WALK OFF BLOG SITE:
- New website

Intervention walkoff's Blog
http://interventionwalkoff.wordpress.com/
August 24, 2009: "This blog will be continually updated,
so keep checking for more news and information, including
photos and video of the walk off camp."

- Support Alyawarr people’s walk-off at Ampilatwatja

Intervention walkoff's Blog: Support us
http://interventionwalkoff.wordpress.com/support-us/
August 24, 2009: "We’re writing to you from our protest
camp in the desert, asking for your support in our struggle
for basic services and rights that many in the cities take
for granted. ... "

UPDATED NT INTERVENTION COMPLAINT SENT TO UNITED NATIONS:

National Indigenous Times:
NT intervention complaint sent to United Nations... again
http://www.nit.com.au/news/story.aspx?id=18483
20 Aug 09: "A group of Aboriginal people have again taken
their fight overseas, this time condemning the federal
government for its deceit on its intervention consultations
and Alice Springs town camp takeover in an updated
complaint to the United Nations. ... Written on behalf of a
group of Aboriginal people living in prescribed areas under
the intervention, it says that the promised consultations
had been limited and inadequate, that there had been
"little progress" in drafting the redesigned intervention
measures and that the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA)
remains suspended. It also mentions the Rudd government's
compulsory acquisition of the Alice Springs town camp,
saying that it is obvious the Commonwealth would have been
unable to stage the move after the RDA is reinstated."

VISIT BY UN EXPERT, JAMES ANAYA
- Background

WGAR News:
UN Expert visits Australia to report on Aboriginal Human Rights (18 Aug 09)
http://perth.indymedia.org/index.php?action=newswire&parentview=145907

WGAR News
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