Aboriginal Law Bulletin --- "Update: Public Drunkenness Update; International Update" [1991] AboriginalLawB 47; (1991) 1(52) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 2

• Update
• Public Drunkenness Update
• International Update

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Update

Public Drunkenness Update

An article by Desmond Lane in ALB 51/21 entitled "Public Drunkenness in Victoria" outlined the failure of the Victorian Parliament to decriminalise public drunkenness despite recommendations to do so from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the Victorian Law Reform Commission. In the final paragraph he warned:

"The risk remains, therefore, that despite the findings of the Royal Commission, more Aboriginal people will die in Victorian cells as a result of just being drunk."[1]

On Wednesday 28 August, 1991, a 38 year old Aboriginal man was found hanged in Bendigo police station. The Age newspaper reported that he "was found hanged with his shoe laces from a shower door."[2] He had been arrested for being drunk in public.

International Update

Australia's 6th, 7th and 8th reports to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) were considered during the Committee's meeting in Geneva in August.

The UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has a Committee on Non-Government Organisations which meets in January every 2nd year to consider applications by NGO's for consultative status. The next round will be in January 1993 and applications should be lodged with the Secretariat in New York before May 1992. One Aboriginal organisation (NAILS$) has consultative status.

The UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) will be held in Rio de Janario, Brazil, 2-12 June 1992. The Preparatory Committee (PREPCOM) meetings have placed indigenous peoples' concerns squarely on the agenda so that the opportunity is there for indigenous input.

Applications to the UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations, to support indigenous peoples' attendance at the 1992 session of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations should be lodged by 16 March 1992 with Mr Julian Burger, Human Rights Centre, United Nations, Palais des Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switerland.

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[1] Desmond Lane, "Public Drunkenness in Victoria", [1991] ALB 43; 2(51)pg21, August, 1991.

[2] David Bruce, "Aborigines seek inquiry into Bendigo cell death", The Age, 30 August, 1991, p.4.