Stolen Generation

The term Stolen Generation refers to the removal of the children of Australian aborigines from their families by the Australian government, to either be adopted by Europeans, or raised in schools run by Christian missionaries. A significant fraction of those suffered vicious abuse and deprivation (though such abuse at mission schools was not exclusive to Aboriginal children - many British orphans brought to Australian missions also suffered similar fates); all were deprived of their cultural heritage.

The issue of the Stolen Generation is highly controversial in Australia at present.

Many people involved in the removals claim that they believed it was being done voluntarily, and it was being done to for the welfare of the removed children.

Some argue that the removal of Aboriginal children from their families constituted genocide. The legal definition of genocide, contained in the [Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide]?, includes "forcibly transferring children of the group to another group". If the intention behind the removal was to destroy Australian Aborigines as an ethnic or racial group, then it would legally be genocide. The argument that the removal constituted genocide was accepted by the "National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families", [1], which said "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... The practice continued for almost another quarter of a century."

Court cases have been launched on the issue of the Stolen Generations. However, these cases have not been very succesful, since it is difficult to prove did or did not happen decades ago.

Appeals have also been made to the UN human rights treaty committees, and the UN committees have been largely favourable towards Aboriginal complaints. As a result of this, the Howard Government has become highly critical of the UN human rights system. (One consequence of this has been the refusal of the Howard Government to sign the Optional Protocol to the [Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women]? (CEDAW), which would grant the CEDAW committee the power to hear complaints from individuals.)

This article needs more facts, like: when did these removals take place, how many children were likely removed, links to some of the court cases and UN committee reports, etc.

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Relevant Web Links

http://www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/stolen_children/
The (Australian) Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission website

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/rsjproject/rsjlibrary/hreoc/stolen/
The official Australian government report: "Bringing Them Home - Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families"