Aboriginal Witnesses in Queensland's Criminal Courts

This report is concerned with the barriers that face Aboriginal people who are called to give evidence as witnesses in criminal proceedings. 

These barriers arise largely from the clash of Aboriginal culture and language with the culture and language which prevail in the courtroom, and reflect the failure of the criminal justice system in many cases to recognise and allow for those differences. 

The report then proposes ways in which barriers to effective communication may be overcome. These recommendations are aimed at ensuring that: 

• courts have the best possible evidence before them on which to base decisions
• courts have the facility to interpret that evidence properly
• the experience of giving evidence in court is made no more traumatic and foreign for Aboriginal witnesses than for others
• the confidence of Aboriginal people in the court system is enhanced and the system is made more accessible to them. 

This report was tabled in Parliament on 8 July 1996.