The UN is coming to inspect Australia’s prisons

A group of independent human rights experts will be able to inspect any place of detention in Australia in the second half of the year.

The United Nations’ torture prevention body will visit Australia in the coming months to inspect prisons and detention centres in the country and assist with the belated implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture.

The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) has announced it will be visiting Australia in the second half of the year, after its previously scheduled visit in 2020 was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The group of independent human rights experts from around the world will meet with representatives to discuss the implementation of obligations under the anti-torture convention, which Australia is still lagging on, and will also be able to visit any place of detention.

Australia ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) in December 2017. OPCAT requires signatories to allow the SPT to have unrestricted access to places of detention, and to establish independent oversight bodies, known as National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs), to conduct proactive inspections of these places.

These obligations were due to be in place earlier this year but Australia was granted another one-year extension, with a new deadline of 20 January next year. There has been little progress in the establishment of NPMs, particularly in New South Wales and Victoria, amid ongoing funding disputes between the states and the federal government.

The UN SPT will likely assist state and territory governments in establishing these inspection bodies in a way that meets the OPCAT requirements.

“Visiting state parties is fundamental to exercising our mandate to protect people deprived of liberty in a variety of settings, for example, not only prisons but police stations, psychiatric institutions, closed refugee camps and immigration detention centres,” SPT chair Suzanne Jabbour said.

The UN SPT has 25 members from around the world, with at least two members conducting the visits in signatory countries. The group is allowed to visit any place of detention and speak with the people being deprived of their liberty there, as well as the staff.

Its observations and recommendations are passed on to the country confidentially but they are encouraged to make this report public.

When approving Australia’s deferral, the UN SPT pointed out that the inspection bodies must be wholly independent from government and have adequate resourcing. Australia was also ordered to present an action plan for the establishment of the NPMs as soon as possible and to give an oral progress report by the end of October.

The UN SPT conducted a visit to the UK just before the Covid pandemic, and warned that OPCAT in the country “remains precarious as it is not underpinned by a clear legislative basis”. The previous Coalition government had also opted to not introduce any legislation to underpin OPCAT in Australia.

The Commonwealth Ombudsman has been designated as the NPM for federal places of detention and to play an oversight role of the implementation of the convention by state and territory governments. Despite this new role, the previous Coalition government slashed the Ombudsman’s funding by $6 million in this year’s budget.

Western Australia and the ACT are the only jurisdictions so far to have come close to complying with the OPCAT obligations. Tasmania, South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory have made progress but are yet to be compliant, while Victoria and New South Wales have made little visible progress.

It’s hoped that the OPCAT obligations will help to prevent human rights abuses in places of detention in Australia in a proactive way.