Australia seen as ‘soft on human rights’ for failing to confront ‘uncomfortable’ history, expert says

Human rights expert Renée Jeffery says Australia remains on the defensive over its high rate of incarceration of Indigenous people and slow progress in raising the age of criminal responsibility. Photograph: Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty Images

Australia is seen as “soft on human rights” because it has failed to confront its own “uncomfortable” history including the mistreatment of First Nations people, a leading expert says.

Prof Renée Jeffery, who specialises in human rights and foreign affairs, will say in a speech in Canberra on Thursday that Australia has failed to openly condemn “some of the world’s most egregious abuses”, often choosing quiet diplomacy.