August 20, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Saani 10, 1423

SYDNEY, Aug 19: Australia was once a leading world advocate of human rights issues, but in recent years had lost the plot, leading human rights campaigner Chris Sidoti said here Monday.

The former Australian human rights commissioner told a public seminar at the University of Western Sydney that Australia had now joined the ranks of states that were among the world’s greatest human rights offenders.

Compulsory detention of asylum seekers, coupled with domestic policies on reconciliation and mandatory sentencing, had damaged Australia’s international human rights reputation, he said.

“For 50 years Australia had been one of the leading nations committed to protecting the human rights of all people,” he said.

“However, events in the last few years, most notably our treatment of asylum seekers, have severely dented Australia’s reputation as a human rights leader.”

Australia’s recent record on United Nations issues, including the women’s discrimination convention, the International Criminal Court and inspection of detention centres, had tarnished the nation’s international image, he claimed.

“It puts us in the company of hard line countries with appalling human rights records such as China, Cuba, Iraq, Iran and Burma,” he said. “We have simply lost the plot.”

Sidoti said Australia’s recent human rights practices, both international and domestic, had drawn widespread criticism from the international community.

“Each of the six key human rights treaties has a committee of independent experts to monitor compliance with the treaty’s obligations,” he said.

“Over the last two years Australia’s performance of its commitments has been criticised repeatedly by every one of these six committees. “They have been critical of our mandatory sentencing of offenders, particularly children, mandatory detention of unauthorised arrivals and the prison conditions of indigenous people.”

Also coming under fire were Australia’s attitudes towards native title, its past policies of removing Aboriginal children from insecure family environments, attitudes towards reconciliation and the perceived downgrading of women’s rights.

Sidoti blamed Prime Minister John Howard’s conservative government for the UN criticisms.—AFP