UN human rights chief praises Australia for first formal treaty with Indigenous Peoples

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk praised Australia’s first formal treaty with Indigenous Peoples on Monday, calling it a “historic step toward self-determination for the country’s First Peoples.”

While still pending assent, the treaty enables constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, a goal called for by Indigenous leaders in the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart . Passed by legislators in the state of Victoria, the treaty establishes a democratically-elected and permanent First Peoples Assembly–the Gellung Warl–which will include both a truth-telling body and an accountability body. Creation of these bodies has been longstanding goals, articulated in the Uluru Statement, which called for “a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agree