Call to put Kakadu on endangered list
The deteriorating legislative, cultural and social situation in the Kakadu World Heritage Area has led ATSIC to recommend that UNESCO place it on the "in danger" list as a matter of urgency. "ATSIC remains concerned over the danger posed to the Kakadu World Heritage Area, owned by the Mirrar Aboriginal people, from the Jabiluka mining development", said ATSIC Chairman Geoff Clark in a statement issued last Sunday. ATSIC has lodged a submission to UNESCO's World Heritage Commission (WHC) in Paris seeking urgent consideration of the matter at its meeting in Cairns in December 2000. It has asked the WHC to send its International Scientific Panel and Cultural Advisory Committee to undertake an immediate and comprehensive investigation of the impact of Jabiluka mining. ATSIC's submission points to recent action by the United States Government in responding to similar threats to the Yellowstone and Everglades National Parks. In those cases, placement on the List of the World Heritage in Danger saw a flow of remedial measures and resources including federal funding for rehabilitation and pollution control and land trades. "ATSIC has proposed that land under the Jabiru township should be handed back to traditional owners as recommended by the Kakadu Region Social Impact Study", said Mr Clark. "The whole of Kakadu should become Aboriginal land by scheduling under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act of 1976." ATSIC has also strongly urged the WHC to commission a full and thorough review of Australia's domestic legislation and administration relevant to World Heritage sites. "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a vital interest in 10 out of the 13 World Heritage properties in Australia yet our Indigenous rights to land and heritage protection face constant reduction. "The nation of Australia was founded in 1901 based on the false legal principle of terra nullius. Australia lacked both a Bill of Rights entrenched in its Constitution and a negotiated treaty with the Indigenous peoples. Most of the problems emerging in Kakadu could have been averted had there been a properly negotiated, binding treaty in place", said Mr Clark. ATSIC has pledged full support for the Mirrar peoples in their struggle to care for and protect their traditional country in Kakadu. The ATSIC submission to UNESCO is available under "issues" at http://www.atsic.gov.au Information on World Heritage sites is available at http://www.unesco.org/whc/sites