Equal Human Rights for Aboriginal People in Constitution

Essay

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Introduction
This essay brings out the discussion on equal human rights for the Aboriginal people
according to constitution. A well-defined set of policies, laws and a constitution reflects
country`s values especially when it caters all the communities of the country. It is important
to value the indigenous people as a recognised identity of the nation because every citizen
living in the national boundaries of the country has the right to enjoy the fundamental right.
There is a huge difference between just changing the constitutions and recognising
indigenous Australians in the constitutions. Preamble introduces a constitution that has no
legal power. Modifying the preamble can only acknowledges indigenous people as the
original habitants of the country. The second change can talk about changing the part of the
constitution to set out some new laws that have legal significance (McCallum, Waller, &
Dreher, 2016).
Main objectives to propose the change about aboriginal people should include fixation of
historical exclusion of indigenous people from the constitution. Moreover, the changes
should consider removing all those references that constitution has and allows to discriminate
based on race. This essay presents a favourable condition that including indigenous people in
the constitution is important. As every person has, the right to acquire a citizenship in the
constitution for the entire fundamental rights which an Australian enjoys (Pringle, Westman,
Kythreotis, & Schindler, 2015).
Constitution for Indigenous people
From the perception of human rights, earlier Australian constitution did not provide
protection to the individual rights because the government realised to explore the existence of
Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people of Australia is regarded as original inhabitants. There
was a moment when the government explored that the formal recognition and acknowledged

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that Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders are the first persons of the country. Earlier,
indigenous people were not considered in the constitution. They still suffers from the racial
discrimination. This formal acknowledgment would constitute a real articulation that lays
respect for the identified first peoples of the Australia. This has encouraged the aspiration to
provide equal rights to Aboriginal people after discussing the challenges faced by the
Aboriginal community (King, Brough, & Knox, 2014). Centuries of globalisation and
liberalisation has left the indigenous people with no opportunity to enjoy any basic human
right. The constitution has been drafted when indigenous people were considered a dying race
who are not worth of citizenship and humanity. Earlier the indigenous people were excluded
from the discussions while creating an economic development such as constructing building
and infrastructure, which is situated on their Ancestral waters and land. They were in the fear
that recognition of the indigenous people can lead to claims for the compensation and land
taken for the European settlement (King, Brough, & Knox, 2014).
The historical and recent economic, legal, and social inequities were identified during the
subordinate approach to the inequality in ALRC. An approach to resolve the problem related
to Aboriginals requires a broader understanding of inequality and disadvantage that
undermine the rights of aboriginal people and discriminate against the indigenous
Australians. Under most of problems faced by the Aboriginal people, it is identified that they
have started losing their identity. Due to widespread oppression, violence and poverty in the
Aboriginal community, it was mandatory to take initiatives to protect and provide them
reliable resources and employment to run their livelihood. Apart from the legal and
constitutional rights, Aboriginal people could not avail proper medication and health services
due to malnutrition, lack of treatment, poverty, contamination of ecosystem, and diversion of
toxic industrial waste to their residential area (NACCHO, 2018).