A/HRC/36/46/Add.2 indigenous populations live in the States of New South Wales and Queensland. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders comprise 30 per cent of the population of the Northern Territory, the highest proportion of any state or territory. While Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are more likely to live in remote rural parts of the country than the non-indigenous population, the majority of the indigenous population today lives in urban areas. 11. Stark disparities and social disadvantage persist between indigenous and nonindigenous Australians across all quality of life indicators. 2 Indigenous Australians generally experience significantly lower standards of health, education, employment and housing, and are drastically overrepresented compared with non-indigenous people in the criminal justice system, among children in out-of-home care and among victims of family violence. The Special Rapporteur deeply regrets that many of those indicators have deteriorated significantly since her predecessor’s 2009 visit, and that numerous innovative and effective indigenous community-led initiatives established in recent years remain underfunded. III. International human rights instruments and mechanisms 12. Australia has ratified most international human rights treaties. However, it has yet to become a party to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure and the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 13. The Government has publicly indicated its intention to ratify before the end of 2017 the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which it signed in 2009. 14. In 2009, Australia endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It has not ratified the International Labour Organization Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169). 15. Australia still maintains reservations to article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the humane treatment of people deprived of their liberty and to article 37 (c) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on juvenile justice. According to the reservations, Australia restricts acceptance of its obligation to separate accused persons from convicted persons and to separate children from adults in prison. 3 The reservations have been maintained despite repeated calls for their withdrawal by the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Rights of the Child.4 16. In November 2015, the domestic rights record of Australia was reviewed for the second time as part of the universal periodic review. While the Government affirmed that it would ensure that laws and practical actions gave effect to the aims of the Declaration, it did not accept the recommendations to develop a national strategy to implement it. 5 IV. National legal and institutional framework 17. The Australian Federal Constitution came into effect on 1 January 1901. It explicitly discriminated against “aboriginal natives” by excluding them from population counts. That reference was removed by a decision supported by a 90 per cent majority of the electorate in the 1967 referendum, which also amended the Constitution to allow the Federal 2 3 4 5 4 www.abs.gov.au/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples. See https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV4&chapter=4&clang=_en and https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src= TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-11&chapter=4&clang=_en. See CRC/C/AUS/CO/4, para. 10; and CCPR/C/AUS/CO/5, para. 9. See A/HRC/31/14, paras. 136.85-136.87; and A/HRC/31/14/Add.1, paras. 23-28 and 138.