Alyawarr children watch Aboriginal stockmen unload brumbies (wild horses) at the Arlparra stockyards, Northern Territory, Australia, August 2009.
Background:
In 2007, the Australian Government launched an intervention into Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. To enact the Northern Territory Emergency Response legislation and to implement the intervention, the Australian Government suspended the Racial Discrimination Act and Northern Territory anti-discrimination legislation. More than 45,000 Aboriginal people are now subject to racially discriminatory measures, including the acquisition of Indigenous land and the compulsory and blanket quarantining of social security payments in 73 Northern Territory communities. For many, these measures have stripped them of their dignity and further contributed to a deep sense of exclusion and voicelessness. Amnesty International is calling for laws designed to protect people from discrimination to be immediately reinstated without any loopholes.
