A/HRC/15/37/Add.4 31. In its response to the report of the NTER Review Board, the Government accepted each of these recommendations, as well as a number of the Review Board’s recommendations that are specific to the various programme areas,16 and outlined its vision for the NTER in its May 2009 Future Directions for the Northern Territory Emergency Response Discussion Paper (“Discussion Paper”). In its Discussion Paper the Government committed to introducing into Parliament in 2009 the necessary legislation for the reinstatement of the Racial Discrimination Act. It also reported its intention to redesign some of the NTER measures through appropriate legislative and administrative reforms, following a consultation process that would be independently monitored and facilitated by interpreters. The Government recognized that many of NTER’s efforts have fallen short of expectations because of a lack of community involvement and participation in the design and implementation of the NTER, and it expressed its intention to remedy this issue by working more closely with and listening to community members and leaders. 32. From June through August 2009 the Government proceeded with a wide-ranging process of consultation with indigenous communities and individuals in the Northern Territory with a view to enacting reforms to the NTER, and later that year it issued the results of these consultations.17 The Special Rapporteur received reports alleging that the consultations did not adequately accommodate indigenous peoples’ own leadership structures or decision-making procedures, that there often was an absence of interpreters or adequate explanation of NTER measures, and that the consultations were at times geared to specific predetermined outcomes.18 In this regard, the Special Rapporteur stresses that consultations with indigenous peoples should be carried out in accordance with their own representative institutions and mechanisms of decision-making. 33. On the other hand, the Special Rapporteur is cognisant of the difficulties inherent in a consultation process of this magnitude. He also is aware of the assessment of some government officials and observers that indigenous peoples’ own leadership and decisionmaking structures are in some ways dysfunctional, because of the very disadvantage they face, and that those structures do not allow for the voices of the most disadvantaged, in particular women, children and the elderly to be heard. Such an assessment, however, should be closely scrutinized. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur notes that indigenous women played prominent and often leading roles in all of the multiple meetings he had at indigenous communities in various locations in the Northern Territory. 34. In any case, the Special Rapporteur acknowledges that the extensive consultations engaged in by the Government represent a significant effort to understand and address the concerns of the indigenous communities that the NTER measures are intended to benefit. At the same time, it is apparent from the Government’s own report of the results of these consultations that there is an absence of evidence of broad or even substantial acceptance by indigenous communities of the rights-impairing aspects of the NTER measures. While indicating that many indigenous individuals who were consulted on an individual basis or in open community meetings support the NTER measures, the Government’s report reveals a general pattern of criticism, emanating from workshops with indigenous leaders and 16 17 18 34 Australian Government and Northern Territory Government Response to the Report of the NTER Review Board (May 2009). See Australian Government, Report of the Northern Territory Emergency Response Redesign Consultations (2009) (“Government Report on Consultations”). Although generally favourable toward the consultative process, the report of the independent institution commissioned by the Government to monitor the process includes some such criticisms. See Cultural & Indigenous Research Centre Australia (CIRC), Report of the NTER Redesign Engagement Strategy and Implementation (2009) (“CIRCA report”). GE.10-13887