| In July 1977 a National Ministerial Summit was held on Aboriginal deaths in custody. The Queensland Government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community representatives attending the Summit, resolved that the Ministers work in partnership with Indigenous peoples to address the issue of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the criminal justice system. The Agreement is a partial response to that resolution. It is based on a set of nine principles that will be used to guide all justice policies, programs and services in Queensland. These are: Indigenous participation; recognition of culture; acknowledgment of the impact of past policies, practices and philosophies; respect for Indigenous cultural values; equality before the law; improved coordination within Government and between Government and community organisations; empowerment and self-determination; the addressing of underlying social, cultural and economic issues; and a continued commitment to implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Task Force on Violence.
The overall theme of the Agreement is the concept of building capacities. The Agreement commits the Queensland Government and ATSIAB to follow a five-part strategy: building community capacities; building individual capacities; building a more culturally sensitive criminal justice system; building a stronger role for communities in justice administration; and building integrated and coordinated justice related services. The first of these five strategies will be pursued through other areas of the Ten Year Partnership. For each of these categories, the Agreement sets out an action plan that is reviewed and updated each year.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Justice Negotiation Group has been set up to coordinate, monitor and review implementation of the Agreement, plan the allocation of resources, and link up with other groups in the Ten Year Partnership. Regional and local community structures will also be set up to have regional and local input into the implementation of the Agreement.
The Agreement is subject to annual review by the Justice Negotiation Group to ensure it remains current and accounts for the progress made each year in achieving the supporting outcomes and any new best practice initiatives developed. An independent evaluation of the Agreement will be undertaken every three years both on a statistical and qualitative basis, which will include an assessment of how the outcomes are measured.
The Agreement is for a period of ten years from the date of signing, or for the duration of the Ten Year Partnership, whichever is greater. | |
