•  united nations
• Friday, February 18, 2011
• Inter Press Service

Australia has been urged to place human rights before national interest in its allocation of foreign aid, following a review of the country’s donor programme by an independent U.N. expert. Wrapping up his first mission to Australia last weekend, Cephas Lumina, a specialist designated by the U.N. Human Rights Council, released a statement recommending the government develop a 'consistent approach' to its international development work.

'Although some of its programme sectors directly or indirectly promote human rights, AusAID (Australian Agency for International Development) does not have a specific policy requiring all its programmes to be consistent with a human rights-based approach to development,' Lumina said. Noting the free trade agreement negotiations currently underway in the region, Lumina said Australia should use foreign funding to help countries achieve human rights obligations, rather than to push national economic interests.

'Development assistance should not be used as a means of inducing Pacific Island countries to enter into free trade agreements,' he said. 'Australia’s aid programme should be guided by the needs of recipient communities, rather than focused on Australia’s national interests.'

The Australian government has committed to increasing development aid to 0.5 per cent of the country’s Gross National Income (GNI) by 2015, but still below the internationally agreed official development assistance (ODA) target of 0.7 per cent of GNI. According to AusAid, a quarter of its total aid budget is allocated to the Pacific Islands and Papua New Guinea, with $1,085.4 million channeled to the region in 2010-11, an increase of six per cent over total aid flows in 2009-10.

Despite this, the Australian government acknowledges that no Pacific country will meet all the Millennium Development Goals. Lumina’s review comes following an Oxfam report released last week, which cautioned western governments, including Australia, against militarising their aid programmes.

The report revealed nations were increasingly allocating donor dollars based on military, security and geopolitical interests, rather than poverty or humanitarian needs. Since 2001, more than 40 per cent of the total $17.8 billion increase in development aid from the OECD donors has gone to just two countries - Afghanistan and Iraq - with the remainder dispersed between 150 countries, according to Oxfam.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service