Amnesty delegation to check the way police and protesters interact complies with standards

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Human rights observers are to attend the Invasion Day rally in Melbourne on Friday to monitor the way police respond to the protesters, Amnesty International has said.

The Melbourne rally is the largest of those held around the country on 26 January and is expected to attract more than 30,000 people.

Interaction between police and protesters in previous years has been confined to holding the rally back from interrupting the official City of Melbourne Australia Day parade, which begins at 11am on Swanston Street.

The Invasion Day march meets at the same time at the steps of Parliament House, three blocks from Swanston Street.

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“2018 marks 230 years of Indigenous resistance against colonisation,” organisers Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance said. “It marks 80 years of protest against the celebration of genocide by the rest of this country. We march to recognise the ongoing struggle of our people and call on this country to rectify the wrongs, teach the truths and finally make amends.”

In a statement, Amnesty International said it would send a delegation of nine observers to monitor compliance with human rights standards for the policing of protests.

Two protest marches are scheduled for Sydney, one recreating the 1988 Long March for Justice and ending in a rally in Hyde Park, and the other marching from the block in Redfern to the Yabun cultural festival in Victoria Park.

Similar marches or rallies will be held in Brisbane, Hobart and Perth, as well as a number of regional towns, with events in Adelaide and Darwin.

Victoria Police deputy commissioner Andrew Crisp said police were on high alert for any interaction between Invasion Day protesters and members of far-right groups, which are holding a gathering at St Kilda Beach.



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“I want to be very clear in relation to any activities planned by any groups where you intend to overstep the mark and engage in anti-social behaviour; it won’t be tolerated,” Crisp said.

Police in Melbourne are already investigating the vandalism of two colonial monuments: a statue of Captain James Cook in St Kilda and a monument to explorers Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills in Royal Park.

Federal citizenship minister Alan Tudge told Fairfax Radio that the act achieved nothing, saying: “You can’t rewrite our history… I want Australia Day to be a great unifying day for our country. It has been for many decades now.”

National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) chairman John Singer criticised politicians for dismissing those who oppose the celebration of Australia Day as “politically correct, angry, banner waving far-left extremists”.

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He said 2017 had been a difficult year for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, with prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s rejection of the Uluru statement, and dismissal of the change the date campaign added to those concerns.

“Turnbull will soon rise in the House of Representatives to parrot a few words of an Indigenous language and inform us of what a great job his department and agencies are doing for us in his Close the Gap report,” Singer said in a statement.

“Remember, he did promise to work with us. The pain and suffering of our people is not so easily bought off with a few trinkets and baubles thrown to us.”

Turnbull said last week that he was “disappointed” in those who sought to change the date of Australia Day and urged all Australians to celebrate.