‘Hostility and smear campaigns’: How Australia drove out the UN prisons inspectors

The UN group that was driven out of the country has delivered a scathing report on conditions within places of detention in Australia.

An independent United Nations inspections group says it encountered “hostility”, “smear campaigns” and a “fundamental lack of understanding” during its visit to investigate places of detention in Australia in 2022.

The UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) conducted a visit to Australia in late 2022 as part of the country’s obligations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT). 

This visit was paused and eventually terminated after the group was prevented from inspecting a number of places of detention in New South Wales and Queensland.

The UN SPT’s report on this visit and on issues in places of deprivation of liberty in Australia, including prisons and immigration detention centres, was handed to the federal government early last year.

The government has finally made this report, along with its response to it, public.

The report details the series of roundblocks and hostility the UN group encountered during its doomed inspection of Australia.

“The Subcommittee regrets that it experienced a discourteous, and in some cases hostile, reception from a number of government authorities and officials in places of deprivation of liberty, not in keeping with the collaborative and assistance-based nature of its visit,” the report said.

“Throughout its visit, the Subcommittee observed a fundamental lack of understanding, among both federal and state authorities, of the Optional Protocol, the State Party’s obligations and the mandate and powers of the Subcommittee.”

The group said that it was provided with incorrect addresses and information regarding people in detention, and that many of the credentials provided to it were not what were required.

The Subcommittee also experienced “persistent negative media coverage, including pernicious remarks from government officials in certain regions, amounting to what the Subcommittee would qualify as a smear campaign”.

“Such remarks and media reports no doubt contributed in some cases to the hostility faced by the Subcommittee, as evidenced by the repetition of disparaging quotes from government officials by the administrators of some of the places of deprivation of liberty that it visited,” the SPT report said.

Despite having ratified OPCAT five years ago, Australia is still yet to satisfy its obligations under the agreement, which includes the establishment of National Preventative Mechanisms to independently and proactively inspect all places of detention across all states and territories. New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland are still yet to designate their inspection bodies.

The Subcommittee urged the federal government to introduce legislation to underpin OPCAT in Australia, something the government has continually refused to do. This would ensure the inspection bodies have full independence and ensure their privileges, immunities and resources are enshrined in legislation.

“Such legislation should also ensure that the harmonised functioning of bodies of the mechanisms across the country, so that they are able to coordinate and cooperate effectively for better results,” the report said.

The UN group identified concerns with the low age of criminal responsibility in Australia, the “arbitrary use” of restraints such as spit hoods in places of detention, high levels of people on remand in prison, the over-securitisation of places of detention and the conditions within these places.