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Introduction
It is a pleasure to be able to speak again to representatives from the range of non-governmental organisations which make such an important contribution to Australia's vital human rights effort.
In this year, the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly, we would do well to keep in mind the opening words of the Declaration's Preamble. And I quote: "recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world".
That is essentially what the struggle for human rights is all about. It is about a better world for all of us.
Today we are only too familiar with the atrocities committed by repressive regimes. The media constantly assail us with images of the oppressed from around the globe: from the brutal sights of torture and murder to the loneliness of Aung San Suu Kyi's car halted for days on a bridge, a symbol of a whole people denied freedom. We are all too conscious of the vastness of the task we face in trying to improve the lot of the millions in this world denied fundamental human rights.
But that is all the more reason to congratulate those in this room who have remained committed to the ideals of the Universal Declaration and who direct considerable energy and resources to improving the lot of these people.
And today I am very pleased to be able to stand before you and say that the Government too has remained committed to the vital goal of making a better world through its sustained practical approach to achieving better outcomes on human rights. I want first to outline for you once again what our approach is and then to set out for you the important achievements of the Government in this field.
The Government's Practical Human Rights Approach
I began by quoting the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. The Declaration is regarded as the basic cornerstone of the international human rights system upon which the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights, and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and other human rights standards have been developed.
The Government's human rights policies are based on the universality and indivisibility of fundamental human rights - civil, political, economic, social and cultural as enshrined in the Universal Declaration.
All Australians can take pride in the fact that Australia was very much involved in the drafting of the Universal Declaration.
We see the 50th anniversary year as a time to focus on practical activities which will strengthen the international human rights regime. The Prime Minister has described this anniversary as an opportunity for all of us to reinvigorate our efforts to ensure that human rights are enjoyed by all people in all countries. He pledged that Australia would continue to do all it can to promote and protect the rights enshrined in the Declaration.
The Government views human rights as an inseparable part of Australia's overall foreign policy approach, both because the treatment of human beings is a matter of concern to Australians and because promoting and protecting human rights underpins our broader security and economic interests. For too long human rights diplomacy was quarantined from the mainstream of the international policy agenda. We have set about ensuring that human rights discussions take place in the context of our overall foreign relationships.
The important area of human rights should not be an unproductive battleground or an environment for sloganeering. What we seek is results, not rhetoric, with the outcome being genuine and real improvements in human rights.
In putting this approach to human rights into practice, Australia is guided by two considerations: first, a realistic assessment of what can and cannot be done on particular human rights issues and a practical approach to our human rights goals; and second, a clear analysis of the way in which human rights concerns fit with Australia's interest in maintaining security and enhancing prosperity.
We have therefore taken a very outcomes-oriented approach across the full range of our human rights activities. These include bilateral representations, constructive dialogue with other governments, a broad range of multilateral activity, principally in United Nations forums, and practical support through our aid program.
But in our view, the real basis for a sustained improvement in the quality of human rights needs to be through domestic reform founded on working institutions which guarantee participation and accountability. Reform of the institutions must, however, come from within.
It is clear that the ability of each state to protect human rights effectively depends to a significant degree on the strength of its own institutions, including a representative legislature, an accountable executive and an independent judiciary. A vigorous civil society is another important element in creating a culture of human rights and we have accordingly increased substantially this year grants to in-country organisations for small, practical, on-the-ground activities.
Australia gives priority to institution building in the human rights field. We have therefore put considerable effort, as well as substantial funding through our development cooperation programs, into promoting and supporting institution building as an effective means of achieving good governance and the observance of human rights.
Australia takes the lead on the annual UN Commission on Human Rights resolution on national institutions. This resolution underlines the priority placed on this issue by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, and encourages her to continue to integrate this work into the core activities of her Office.
Australia has also been a major financial contributor - to the tune of $A1.2 million from July 1995 - to the work of the Office of the High Commissioner in assisting and advising governments on the establishment and strengthening of national institutions in Africa, Europe, the Asia Pacific and Latin America.
The Government's Human Rights Achievements
And the Government has achieved considerable success with its focus on a practical approach to human rights issues through institution building.
In my address on Human Rights Day in December 1996 I outlined several areas where the Government was committed to making real progress on human rights and two of these are in the institution-building area. And I think I can fairly say that we have been able to make considerable progress on each of these human rights priorities.
First, Australia has been very active in supporting the work of national human rights institutions in the Asia-Pacific region.
Most recently the Government has provided $A2 million towards strengthening the activities of the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights, Komnas HAM. We believe this is money very well spent as the Commission has demonstrated its independent capacity to influence human rights developments in Indonesia for the good - particularly during the political upheavals of recent times.
And we believe the work of national institutions in individual countries can be strengthened through regional and sub-regional arrangements.
We sponsored the First Asia Pacific Workshop of National Human Rights Institutions held in Darwin in July 1996 which decided to establish an Asia Pacific Regional Forum of National Human Rights Institutions. The Forum's Secretariat is hosted by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission and largely funded through our aid program, funding which includes support for work to establish and develop national human rights institutions in the region.
I am very pleased to say that the Forum is working very well. The Forum's third meeting is to be held in Jakarta in September and a very good sign that it is having an impact is that China said last week - at the second human rights dialogue held here in Canberra - that it will attend that meeting as an observer.
The second initiative which we have been able to advance is the establishment, which I first announced in this Forum, of the Centre for Democratic Institutions, or CDI. The CDI is the domestic flagship of our approach to good governance. It will assist the development and strengthening of democratic institutions in developing countries, especially in the Asia Pacific region.
The CDI's core business is to design and deliver short, intensive, high-level training programs in support of the democratic process and the strengthening of civil society. These will focus on electoral, parliamentary, governmental and judicial procedures and the processes by which broader society - such as the media and NGOs - can contribute to democratic decision-making.
The Government places a high priority on the successful implementation of the CDI and is providing $5 million over the next five years towards its operation. I was very pleased to be able to announce the appointment of Mr Roland Rich as the Director of the CDI in June this year. Mr Rich is well known to you through his previous position as Assistant Secretary of the International Organisations Branch in my Department and has had considerable relevant experience in the region.
A third initiative of the Government's was to change Australia's position on the global eradication of land mines. Land mines are evil, pernicious, indiscriminate weapons of war. Up to 70 million landmines lay scattered across 70 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. Twenty land mines are laid for every mine cleared. Once laid, each land mine is active for up to 50 years. Land mines kill or injure about 41,000 people, including children, every year.
Despite these sobering facts, the previous Labor Government could not bring itself to support a ban on the use, transfer, manufacture or stockpiling of anti-personnel land mines. This Government made a priority of changing that policy. And it has been changed.
I am proud to this day that on 3 December last year in Canada I signed the Ottawa Treaty on Australia's behalf committing us to ending the previous government's policy. It was one of the most gratifying days in the two and a half years I have so far served as Australia's Foreign Minister.
But signing the treaty is not the only step we have taken as part of the growing global crusade against land mines.
I have committed Australia to have spent at least $100 million by 2005 for demining and related programs. Most of our assistance goes to several of the worst affected nations on earth - Cambodia, Laos, Angola, Mozambique and Afghanistan. Our demining technology and expertise is world-renowned. Australia also raises awareness of the dangers of mines in those countries and help practically to rebuild lives shattered by landmines with the provision of prosthetic limbs and rehabilitation.
Australia has rightfully made a big commitment on this issue. The appointment in March of my parliamentary secretary, Mrs Kathy Sullivan, as Australia's Special Representative on Demining to coordinate our international efforts demonstarates that commitment to make the world safer from a terrible weapon which cannot be switched off when the shooting stops and the peace begins.
The fourth initiative which the Government committed itself to in 1996 was the creation of an International Criminal Court.
It was therefore with great pleasure, and indeed with considerable pride, that I welcomed last month the adoption by the Diplomatic Conference in Rome of a statute establishing an International Criminal Court. I say with pride because I opened the Diplomatic Conference on the court's establishment myself as part of the active and constructive role Australia played throughout the difficult negotiating process which led to this important outcome. In particular, we chaired a group of over 60 countries, all of whom were strongly committed to the establishment of an effective Court which could be widely supported.
Make no mistake - this was a great victory for Australia and those like-minded countries which fought long and hard to ensure that the perpetrators of the most heinous crimes against humanity would not be able to act with impunity.
In addition to these four initiatives which were the government's priorities in 1996, we have made a very substantial contribution in a number of other areas through appropriate public and private diplomacy. In particular, we've made significant progress in our discussions on human rights with China.
As you all know, last year we established a formal and regular dialogue to address our human rights concerns in China in a constructive way and the second meeting was held in Australia last week.
I am very pleased to say that the meeting was more open than the first round in Beijing in August last year. It demonstrated that China is beginning to respond to the less confrontational approach adopted by the international community in multilateral forums and bilaterally.
This was reflected in prior agreement on a detailed and comprehensive agenda, and a broad based delegation with experts from a range of relevant agencies, all of whom were active participants in the dialogue. It was also shown by the delegation's willingness to have a formal meeting with a group of Australian NGOs, some of whom are here today, and to meet others of you informally in a reception.
The meeting's outcomes were a significant advance on last year. We were able to release an agreed "Joint Program of Cooperation" after the meeting and this outlines a comprehensive program of human rights technical assistance.
While we still have serious concerns about the human rights situation in China, I would say that this round confirmed that the dialogue is a useful means of encouraging the Chinese to move forward on human rights issues. Moreover, it was consistent with the practical focus of Government's approach to human rights in foreign policy, emphasising engagement over confrontation.
Let me also say a few words about our position on the future of East Timor - an issue on which there has been significant movement in recent months. Ultimately, Australia strongly supports any process that would provide the East Timorese people with a significantly greater say in the running of their own affairs and would accept whatever settlement the participants in this issue negotiate.
We want reconciliation among all East Timorese and between the East Timorese people and the government in Jakarta. Any process which does not allow for this will not result in a fair and lasting solution to this issue.
The Australian Government is currently canvassing the views of as many important players in the East Timor issue as possible in Australia, East Timor, Jakarta and elsewhere to establish for ourselves the starting points in any possible negotiated solution. We strongly support a process of dialogue and, as part of that, we talk with with a wide range of participants from all sides in the debate. This has been a long-standing practice. We don't limit ourselves. The opposite is actually correct. We are seeking as wide a range of views as possible and firmly believe that the East Timorese people themselves must be involved in the issue's resolution.
As part of our efforts, the Australian Ambassador in Jakarta, Mr John McCarthy, recently visited again East Timor and separately spoke with Xanana Gusmao in his Jakarta jail to gain his views on the island's future. We would favour the release of Xanana Gusmao in the context of a process of reconciliation and settlement in East Timor. Australia recognises that Xanana Gusmao has a central role in the resolution of the East Timor issue.
It was indeed perplexing to read an editorial In "The Age" today claiming that Australia was refusing to support Xanana Gusmao's release. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have never said that because we have always recognised that he would naturally have a key role in the dispute's resolution. Ill-informed, inflamatory and misguided sideline commentary on this issue does nothing to help that resolution. Let me reiterate, the Australian Government recognises that Xanana Gusmao has a central role in the resolution of the East Timor issue.
Conclusion
In closing, I would like to assure you that the Government is powerfully aware that while human rights remain at risk, our values are compromised and international stability is jeopardised.
The protection of human rights to promote the dignity of the individual is too important a matter for symbolic gestures alone. It is only through the pursuit of practical and effective efforts to promote human rights that we show our real commitment to the welfare of individuals and society. And it is vital to such practical outcomes that we orient our approach to human rights to emphasise co-operation and the creation of durable structures. By promoting good governance we will be far more effective in achieving our human rights objectives than by taking a confrontational and hectoring approach.
Today I have outlined only a few of the more important of our achievements in the area of human rights: our strong support for the Asia-Pacific Forum on Human Rights Institutions, our establishing the Centre for Democratic Institutions, our changed approach on land mines, our international contribution to bringing about the International Criminal Court and the establishment of a valuable dialogue with the Chinese on human rights issues.
And I would add that I have personally made considerable efforts to encourage greater observance of human rights in Burma. For example, I hope that the suggestion I made to Burma's Foreign Minister U Ohn Gyaw at the recent ASEAN meetings in Manila - that Burma consider establishing a National Human Rights Commission - bears fruit in due course.
On a more immediate level, we are very concerned at the approach the Burmese authorities have taken to efforts on the part of Aung San Suu Kyi to exercise her right to freedom of movement within her own country. We took a recent opportunity, in concert with a range of like-minded countries, to call on the Burmese Government to lift these unacceptable restrictions and to enter into dialogue with the National League for Democracy. We have made quite clear, both bilaterally and through joint approaches, that progress towards dialogue and democratic reform in Burma has been too slow. However, the meeting yesterday between senior members of the Burmese regime and the National League for Democracy is an encouraging sign that dialogue is possible. I indeed hope that the meeting was the beginning of a series of discussions leading to a substantial dialogue.
All of the points I have made today are significant and valuable contributions by Australia to furthering international human rights. But they are in addition to the ongoing work of my Department in making representations to Governments on individual human rights cases and the very substantial funding we provide through the aid program to promoting good governance in developing countries and to building up their institutional capacity to observe human rights.
Finally, I would like to salute the hard work put in by the NGOs represented here today. You help keep our hope and commitment alive. Let me assure you that the Government will continue to do all it can to bring about real improvement in human rights in our region and around the globe.
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