NAAJA International Fund

Ensuring a strong Aboriginal voice at an international level is critical to promote and protect the rights and interests of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, and hold the Australian Government to account for its compliance with its international human rights obligations.

NAAJA is committed to creating and promoting opportunities for its staff, especially Aboriginal staff members, to contribute to the work of United Nations treaty bodies and other human rights mechanisms.

NAAJA has also served an important role actively supporting pathways for Aboriginal people to study law. International experiences for students and in countries across the world rewards effort, builds incentives, enables learning in a different context and the development of relationships, and helps build resilience and a stronger sense of self and place when returning to studying and working in the legal sector which often involves high levels of trauma.

The NAAJA International Fund was established in 2019 for two purposes:

  1. To provide NAAJA with resources as a non-government organisation to send attendees to United Nations activities where this complements domestic policy and law reform.
  2. To enable university participants of the Bilata Legal Pathways Program to gain international experiences related to law and/or Indigenous issues.

NAAJA is unable to fund these activities from its current budget and is seeking donations for this purpose.[1]

Donating to the Fund

Donations to the NAAJA International Fund can be done by transfers to:

BSB: 065901

Account: 11228318

Name: NORTH AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL JUSTICE AGENCY LTD

Reference: International fund

Please see the document link for more information. NAAJA International Fund_Overview

[1] The underfunding of Aboriginal legal aid services and community based legal assistance services is well known: see, for example, Law Council of Australia, The Justice Project, Final Report Part I, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, August 2018, 36; Productivity Commission, Access to Justice Inquiry, September 2014, 30. Given this, NAAJA makes efficiencies where possible including connecting the significant and valuable input of university law student interns who give their time and expertise to assisting with submissions. Funding agreements often also prohibit expenditure on international trips.