5 A human rights-based approach to native title reform In carrying out our statutory duties, Social Justice Commissioners employ a human rights‑based approach, drawing upon the international human rights framework to which Australia is a signatory, and articulating how these rights can be fulfilled and protected within Australia. 5.1 What is a human rights‑based approach to native title reform? A human rights‑based approach centres the experiences of individuals and communities. Taking a person-centred, human rights‑based approach to this Report means that the content addresses the way the native title system is experienced in practice. The intention is for this Report to emphasise the compelling nature of the call for radical, holistic reform. The stories told by women for this Report raise significant human rights concerns with the native title system. This is not the first time that such concerns have been raised. However, the holistic perspective provided by the focus on each woman’s story – and the common ways in which the women have experienced the native title system told through the ‘combined voices’ in Chapter 10 – provides a contextualised understanding of the real-life impacts of the native title system. In particular, this story-based approach highlights the way that different aspects of the system, and players within it, can and do work together to disempower and disenfranchise First Nations women and their communities in their day-to-day lives. It is the impact of the system overall, not merely each provision of the Native Title Act, that has such huge human rights implications. And it is the impact of the native title system on daily life, not merely the determination in favour of or against native title, that translates legislative and regulatory provisions into deep and far-reaching human right violations. While the outcomes of native title claims have had very painful repercussions for many First Nations groups across Australia, the process of claiming native title has resulted in intensified disempowerment for many more. In his Social Justice and Native Title Report 2015, then Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda articulated the PANEL principles of a human rights‑based approach to policy and law reform (Text Box 5.1). 18 Women in Native Title: Native Title Report 2024