Our Greatest Challenge: Aboriginal Children and Human Rights

Bravely addressing a complex and fraught issue, this book shows non-Aboriginal society’s ignorance of the traumatic impacts of sexual assault on Aboriginal children. It argues that Aboriginal child sexual assault has been formed within the entrenched societal forces of racism, colonization, and patriarchy yet cast in the Australian public domain as an Aboriginal “problem.” Providing detailed analysis of the legal systems response, this volume shows that, while child sexual assault is a criminal offence, the tainted Aboriginal experience of the law prevents the fundamental principle of equality. This discussion also encourages readers to find guidance from indigenous human rights concepts and international responses in order to prevent harming future generations.