HREOC. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, “Bringing Them Home –The Report”: “Genocide continued in Australia after prohibition"
Bringing Them Home is the title of the Australian "Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families". Those so removed (about 100,000 in total) are known as the Stolen Generations. The enquiry was established on 11 May 1995 by the Keating Labor Government , in response to efforts made by key Indigenous agencies and communities concerned that the general public's ignorance of the history of forcible removal was hindering the recognition of the needs of its victims and their families and the provision of services. The 700 page report was tabled in Federal Parliament on 26 May 1997: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bringing_Them_Home and http://web.archive.org/web/20070323085042/http://www.hreoc.gov.au/Social_Justice/stolen_children/how_to.html .
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), “Bringing Them Home –The Report”, International Human Rights (1997): “Genocide continued in Australia after prohibition. How early can Australian policies and practices of removing Indigenous children be considered as breaching international law? The Convention, adopted in 1948, and ratified by Australia in 1949, came into force in 1951. Certainly any removal after that time with the intention of destroying Indigenous groups culturally would be in breach if international law. It is clear, however, that even earlier removals were in breach of international law. On 11 December 1946 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring genocide already a crime under international law. This resolution is ,mentioned in the Preamble to the Genocide Convention, making it clear that when the Convention was adopted in 1948 the crime of genocide was well-established in international law… The policy of forcible removal of children from Indigenous Australians to other groups for the purpose of raising them separately from and ignorant of their culture and people could properly be labelled “genocidal” in breach of binding international law from at least 11 December 1946 (confirmed by Justice Brennan in Polyukovich 1991 page 587). The practice continued for a further quarter of a century. Conclusion. Official policy and legislation for Indigenous families and children was contrary to accepted legal principle imported into Australia as British common law and, from late 1946, constituted a crime against humanity. It offended accepted standards of the time and was the subject of dissent and resistance. The implementation of the legislation was marked by breaches of fundamental obligations on the part of officials and others to the detriment of vulnerable and dependent children whose parents were powerless to know their whereabouts and protect them from exploitation and abuse.”. [1].
[1]. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), “Bringing Them Home –The Report”, International Human Rights: