A/HRC/15/37/Add.4 make choices for themselves and to the self-determination and cultural integrity of their communities. In this regard, the NTER Review Board aptly observed: Not surprisingly, there was a convergence among official commentaries and submissions to the Board around the fundamental principle of international human rights law that different classes of rights cannot be traded off against each other ... . It is important to note that criticisms over the exclusion of the [Racial Discrimination Act] do not simply reflect an “academic” debate. Throughout the Board’s community visits and consultations with various organizations and representatives, it was made abundantly clear that people in Aboriginal communities felt humiliated and shamed by the imposition of measures that marked them out as less worthy of legislative protections afforded other Australians ... . The fact that different sets of human rights are not to be traded off against one another is particularly critical in the context of addressing specific concerns in Aboriginal communities. The indivisibility and interdependence of human rights in this context means that addressing issues of violence and abuse ... cannot be done by enacting racially discriminatory measures. Indeed, the critical point to be made here is that addressing the safety and well-being of children, women and families requires the strengthening of human rights frameworks. Such strengthening cannot occur in the context where different categories of rights are considered to be inherently inconsistent – which is not the case.14 29. While overall the NTER is surrounded by controversy, many of the programme’s components are undoubtedly legitimate and important efforts to address indigenous disadvantage. Most notably, the NTER has brought an influx of funds and new initiatives to improve the conditions of indigenous peoples, including women and children in key areas such as housing, health, education, employment and police protection. However, the Special Rapporteur is of the conviction that these efforts can move forward without the racially discriminatory aspects of the NTER and that, indeed, they can best succeed without them and by ensuring as the NTER Review Board has counselled, that the broader human rights framework is strengthened for Aboriginal peoples in the Northern Territory. IV. Anticipated reform 30. Amidst a number of criticisms of the NTER, the Government committed to a process of review of the programme after a year of its operation. The NTER Review Board issued its report to the Government on 12 October 2008, making a number of recommendations in each of the programme areas of the NTER, as well as three overarching recommendations: (1) that “[t]he Australian and Northern Territory Governments recognize as a matter of urgent national significance the continuing need to address the unacceptably high level of disadvantage and social dislocation being experienced by Aboriginal Australians living in remote communities throughout the Northern Territory”; (2) that “[i]n addressing these needs both governments acknowledge the requirement to reset their relationship with Aboriginal people based on genuine consultation, engagement and partnership”; and (3) that “Government actions affecting the Aboriginal communities respect Australia’s human rights obligations and conform with the Racial Discrimination Act 1975”.15 14 15 GE.10-13887 Report of the NTER Review Board, p. 46. Ibid., p. 12. 33