May 01, 2017

KLC Chairman Anthony Watson and Chief Executive Officer Nolan Hunter are attending the Sixteenth Session of the UN Permanent Forum in New York.

Kimberley Land Council Chairman Anthony Watson has put forward a series of recommendations to the United Nations in New York in relation to the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

In an Intervention delivered to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues last week, Mr Watson urged all states to:

• Acknowledge that effective implementation of the Declaration will only be achieved through Indigenous participation in decision-making and control over decisions affecting their land and communities; and
• States commit to establishment of benchmarked strategic achievement goals on implementation of the UNDRIP, through the development of national policy outcome focused assessment frameworks.
• In relation to recognition of rights to land, that the Australian government review and overhaul the Australian native title legislation and prioritise the resolution of native title land claims in Australia.
• In order to overcome the significant social, cultural and economic barriers facing Indigenous people, native title rights must be given its due recognition as proprietary or property rights.

Read the full Intervention here.