Spotlight on Australia's human rights abuses

The United Nations has slammed Australia’s human rights records on First Nations justice, the treatment of asylum seekers and conditions in places of detention.

The United Nations has accused Australia of a series of human rights abuses in its treatment of children in prisons, including the use of spit hoods and solitary confinement.

In its concluding observations from its sixth periodic report on Australia, the UN Committee Against Torture said the country’s juvenile justice record is not in line with the anti-torture convention and contravenes the Nelson Mandela rules.

The Committee raised “serious concerns” with the use of solitary confinement, the disproportionate number of First Nations children in detention and the use of physical restraints and spit hoods.

The UN called on Australia to ban the use of force to coerce or discipline children in detention, “immediately” end the use of solitary confinement for children and raise the age of criminal responsibility across the country.

The use of solitary confinement on children

The UN Committee specifically raised concerns about conditions in the Banksia Hill, Done Dale and Ashley Centre youth prisons in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania respectively.

It was revealed recently that children incarcerated in the Tasmanian facility had been locked down for 23 hours a day over two weeks at a time, while in Western Australia a 15 year old boy on remand was held in solitary confinement for 79 days, 33 of which were without any sunlight or fresh air.

In Queensland youth detention, First Nations children made up nearly 85 percent of those placed in solitary confinement from July 2021 to June 2022. In total, more than 30,000 young people were held in solitary confinement of between six and 12 hours in this time, and 83 children were held by themselves for more than a day.

Transformational change

The Committee Against Torture also highlighted the growing rates of incarceration of First Nations Australians, saying that a “transformational change” is needed to address this.

“The Committee remains concerned at reports that mandatory sentencing and imprisonment for petty crimes, such as fine defaults, still in force in several jurisdictions, continues to contribute to such disproportionately high rates of incarceration of Indigenous people,” the report said.

At a hearing in Geneva this month, Australia was unable to provide detailed information or statistics on deaths in custody.

“[The Committee] regrets the lack of comprehensive information and statistical data on the total number of deaths in custody for the period under review, disaggregated by place of detention, the sex, age and ethnic or national origin or nationality of the deceased and the cause of death,” the report said.

“It is also concerned about the allegations that causes of death in custody include excessive use of force, the lack of healthcare and suicide, and regrets the insufficient information on investigations undertaken in that regard.”

The UN called on Australia to end its practice of the offshore processing of asylum claims, stop enforcing indefinite detention and consider shutting down the Christmas Island detention centre.

Australia should immediately ban the use of spit hoods across all places of detention, the Committee said.

“The state party should take all necessary measures to end the use of spit hoods in all circumstances across all jurisdictions and to provide adequate and regular training for those involved in detention activities on legal safeguards and monitor compliance and penalise any failure on the part of officials to comply,” it said.

‘Scant’ information

In general, the Australian delegation did not do enough to convince the UN Committee members that everything is being done as possible to prevent human rights abuses in places of detention.

“While taking into account the procedural safeguards set forth in domestic legislation, the Committee regrets the scant information provided on the measures and procedures in place to ensure that, in practice, detained persons enjoy all fundamental legal safeguards from the very outset of deprivation of liberty, in particular the rights to access to a lawyer and to an independent medical examination and to notify a relative or person of their choice of their detention,” the report said.

The UN report comes just weeks after a group of UN experts suspended a visit to Australia after being blocked from visiting some prisons and not given all the information it requested.

This visit was part of Australia’s obligations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT). Australia has less than two months to have all of its obligations under the convention in place, including the establishment of independent inspectors, known as National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs). The country’s three largest states are still yet to do this.

“The Committee is seriously concerned that the establishment of an independent, effective and well-resourced NPM network across all the jurisdictions of the state party is not yet achieved,” the Committee said.

“The Committee is also concerned by the general lack of funding for those visiting bodies already set up across the country, and the challenges this poses to the government of Australia in order to ensure full compliance with its obligations.”