FED: Howard tells UN not to interfere on mandatory sentences

AAP General News (Australia)
02-18-2000
FED: Howard tells UN not to interfere on mandatory sentences

By James Grubel and Don Woolford

CANBERRA, Feb 18 AAP - Prime Minister John Howard sent a blunt message to United Nations
Secretary General Kofi Annan today to keep out of the debate about mandatory sentencing.

The prime minister said Australia would make its own moral judgments and would not
be told what to do by outsiders.

His comments came as Mr Annan was due to arrive in Australia on his first official visit.

The United Nations has expressed concern about the impact on young people of the mandatory
sentencing laws in place in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Mr Annan is expected to raise the issue during talks with Mr Howard next week.

But the prime minister made it clear he would not be forced by the UN to intervene
on mandatory sentencing.

"I'll be seeing the UN Secretary General here in Canberra. No doubt if he has any particular
concern he'll raise it," Mr Howard told ABC radio.

"Of course Australia decides what happens here in this country through the laws and
the parliaments of Australia.

"In the end we are not told what to do by anybody. We make our own moral judgments."

Mr Howard said Australia had a good human rights record which should not be tarnished.

"I'm not going to have a situation where people are denigrating the human rights reputation
of Australia," he said.

"Australia's human rights reputation compared to the rest of the world is quite magnificent."

Federal and state Labor leaders who met in the north-western Tasmanian town of Burnie
today were divided on mandatory sentencing.

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said the meeting discussed the issue but did not come
up with a unified view.

But he said the NT laws were the main concern because of their impact on young offenders.

NT Opposition Leader Clare Martin said she strongly opposed mandatory sentencing, especially
of juveniles for property crime.

But she said it was an issue for the NT government to resolve.

WA Labor leader Geoff Gallop said his state's system had not resulted in any injustices
and it should be a matter for its parliament.

Opposition legal affairs spokesman Robert McLelland said the prime minister's comments
were small-minded.

"The prime minister can simply no longer close his eyes to the great injustices and
tragedies of mandatory sentencing," Mr McLelland said in a statement.

Former Law Council of Australia president Stuart Fowler, a convener of the world congress
on family law and the rights of children, condemned mandatory sentencing.

"Mandatory sentencing of children quite clearly offends against international standards,"

Mr Fowler said in a statement.

AAP jg/mfh/jnb/br Y

KEYWORD: MANDATORY NIGHTLEAD

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