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Report calls Australian Aboriginal policy 'genocide'
May 20, 1997
Web posted at: 4:22 p.m. EDT (2022 GMT)SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- A government-appointed inquiry has concluded that Australia's former policy of taking Aboriginal children from their parents for integration into white society amounted to "genocide" and a "crime against humanity."
Sir Ronald Wilson, president of Australia's Human Rights Commission, agreed that the policy -- which wasn't discarded until the 1960s -- was "attempted genocide."
Social Justice Commissioner Mick Dodson, the Aboriginal leader who headed the inquiry, said an apology would be "a very good beginning" toward making reparations.
Aboriginal children were taken from their homes beginning in the 1880s for forced assimilation. They were raised on government and church missions in remote, outback locations where abuse was widespread.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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