Australia has been called on to enact a Human Rights Act, recognise same-sex marriage, abolish mandatory immigration detention and entrench Indigenous rights in the Constitution following a major international review before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The review, known as the Universal Periodic Review, is a process which provides all 192 UN countries the opportunity to ask questions and make recommendations regarding the human rights performance of the country under review.
This was the first time Australia was reviewed under the UPR. The high-level Australian delegation was lead by Senator Kate Lundy and Peter Woolcott, Australia’s Ambassador to the UN.
Fifty countries – including the United Kingdom, the US, Canada, Norway, New Zealand, Ghana, Mexico and South Africa – took the floor to make more than 150 recommendations on how Australia could better protect and promote human rights.
Many of the recommendations refer to racism. Many delegations commented on the disempowerment of Aboriginal people and their exclusion from the decision making process.
Here's a draft report:
http://www.hrlrc.org.au/files/Draft-report-on-UPR-of-Australia.doc
Canberra has pledged to seriously consider the recommendations.
A Melbourne-based independent, non-profit organisation, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre, had a team in Geneva on behalf of a coalition of more than 70 human rights advocacy groups.
They took 17 key areas to other countries' delegations, prompting them to quizz the Canberra government team about them.
Phil Lynch, who heads the Resource group, talked to Diet Simon on Noosa Community Radio's 
show, Tribal Voice.
http://www.4shared.com/audio/oHMeZyKf/Geneva_human_rights_review.html
