Australia’s prisons under scrutiny by United Nations anti-torture watchdog
In a joint submission to the United Nations Committee Against Torture, Change the Record, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services and the Human Rights Law Centre call on the Albanese government to end human rights abuses in prisons and police cells.
Mistreatment that can amount to torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is too common in prisons and police cells across the country.
The coalition calls on the Committee into Australia’s compliance with the Convention Against Torture to recommend that all levels of government:
ban the barbaric and archaic use of solitary confinement, routine strip searching and spit hoods in places of detention across Australia;
repeal dangerous and discriminatory bail laws; and
raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14 years old.
Jamie McConnachie, Executive Officer at the NATSILS, said:
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Urgent action is needed to protect the rights and lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Independent bodies must be set up to monitor the treatment and conditions of people detained; to put an end to the abuse and outdated policies that perpetuate this national crisis.”
Sophie Trevitt, Executive Office at Change The Record, said:
“Every day in Australian police and prison cells, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and adults are being locked away in conditions that would horrify and appall most of us. Children as young as ten years old are strip-searched and locked up in solitary confinement, mothers are imprisoned and separated from their babies for minor breaches of bail and people in custody are denied sometimes life-saving health care.
“The uncomfortable truth is that so long as governments insist on discriminatory, punitive, law-and-order policies they will never close the gap and we will continue to see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, mothers and children driven into Australia’s overcrowded prison system. Change the Record, the Human Rights Law Centre and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services have brought these injustices to the attention of the Committee Against Torture and call for urgent reform.”
Monique Hurley, Managing Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said:
“Australia is in the midst of a mass imprisonment crisis, where human rights abuses are allowed to thrive in the darkness behind closed doors. Right now, people are being tortured in solitary confinement, women are being routinely stripped of their dignity and children as young as 10 are locked up in prison and police cells.
“The United Nations’ upcoming review of Australia will shine the international spotlight on the human rights abuses permitted in prisons across the country, and provide an opportunity for the federal Albanese government to step up to the plate and show leadership where successive previous governments have failed to end human rights abuses behind bars.”
The coalition also recommends that more be done to prevent torture behind bars in the first place. The federal government ratified the UN’s anti-torture protocol - OPCAT - in December 2017 and January 2023 looms large as the current deadline. Alarmingly little progress has been made towards implementation in Victoria and NSW, and the Committee should recommend that the Andrews and Perrottet governments respectively take urgent action to implement the treaty.
BACKGROUND
Change The Record, the Human Rights Law Centre and the NATSILS have made a joint submission to the Committee Against Torture (the Committee) in respect of Australia’s compliance with the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Convention). The submission responds to Australia’s state party report dated 16 January 2019 that is due to be considered by the Committee during the treaty body’s upcoming 75th Session (running from 31 October 2022 - 25 November 2022).
Media contacts:
Michelle Bennett, Engagement Director, 0419 100 519, michelle.bennett@hrlc.org.au
Sophie Trevitt , Executive Officer, 0431 843 095, sophie@changetherecord.org.au