'Embarrassing' state of Indigenous rights must be addressed, UN expert says

A UN special rapporteur has urged the Commonwealth to set national minimum standards for Indigenous rights, calling the current state "embarrassing" for Australia's international reputation.

"I'm convinced Indigenous peoples' rights … are unsafe in the hands of states and territories," Albert Barume told reporters in Sydney.

"I really think the current generation of Australians have a responsibility to face, and this is for their own international reputation, whether on the left or on the right, they need to face the responsibility.

"The state of protection of Indigenous peoples' rights is a bit embarrassing."

The Special Rapporteur for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has just wrapped a two-week visit to Australia, during which he was denied access to youth detention centres in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

In his preliminary findings, Dr Barume urged the Commonwealth to legislate national mandatory standards for First Nations rights that were consistent with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Without these, he said, Australia's human rights obligations were easily ignored by states and territories.

"A change in the government could wipe out those human rights gains," Dr Barume told the ABC.

"It means those rights are not really secured, they are unsafe, and it's like they are optional. Human rights should not be optional."

He criticised states and territories for passing punitive bail and sentencing laws and failing to raise the age of criminal responsibility, which he said had fuelled the over-incarceration of Indigenous children.

First Nations children account for nearly two thirds of those in youth detention.

Indigenous people also make up 37 per cent of the prison population, up from 24 per cent in 2009.

Dr Barume's report said incarceration could not "be understood separately from the continuing effects of colonisation, dispossession, structural racism and inequalities".

He also criticised Queensland and the Northern Territory for abandoning treaty processes, and the Victorian opposition for its promise to scrap treaty if it wins government.

"Fundamental rights cannot be contingent on electoral outcomes or the priorities of successive governments," the report said.

Dr Barume said he heard "disturbing accounts of heightened racism and hate speech" during and after the Voice referendum, and called for a national representative voice for First Peoples.

"Some section of public opinion tended to understand the failed referendum as a 'no' to Indigenous peoples' rights and as an open door to expressing those prejudiced, racist views," he said.

Dr Barume said he had "grave concern" about the rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women and children, and the high rates of children in out-of-home care.

"I was particularly concerned by accounts by First Peoples women who, despite being survivors of violence, are misidentified as perpetrators by law enforcement agents," his report said.

"Women also described fear that seeking assistance or reporting abuse could lead to the removal of their children."

Dr Barume said Australia had made some progress on Indigenous rights, including the expansion of Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, Indigenous ranger programs, language revitalisation and native title rights.

He met with Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy and said he had requested a meeting with the prime minister.

"I'm really asking the prime minister … to explain to the wider Australian population that it is in their interest to fix Indigenous peoples rights," Dr Barume said.

"It's a collective responsibility and a collective international reputation."

A spokesperson for Attorney-General Michelle Rowland told the ABC the government welcomed Dr Barume's visit.

They said human rights in Australia were protected through a range of laws state and federal laws, common law and the constitution.

Dr Barume will present his findings to the UN Human Rights Council in September next year.