The Human Rights Law Centre has denounced Premier Allan for breaking a promise to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14 by 2027 in Victoria.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is calling on all parties in the 2024 NT election to address the NT’s imprisonment crisis and invest in community-led, self-determined solutions which build a better future for everyone.
Read MoreThe Victorian Parliament has an historic opportunity to set up a future where every child grows up in school, has a safe home to live in and is supported to learn from their mistakes with their family and communities.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has called on the Allan Government to be brave in transforming Victoria’s youth justice system, with the Youth Justice Bill 2024 introduced into the Victorian Parliament.
Read MoreThe family of Warlpiri and Luritja teenager Kumanjayi Walker are calling for truth, accountability and justice, after the coronial inquest into the police shooting death of Kumanjayi concluded its evidence yesterday.
Read MoreFormerly incarcerated women, trans and gender diverse people alongside Flat Out and the Human Rights Law Centre are calling for governments across the country to permanently prohibit the practice of strip searching people in Australian prisons.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has slammed the Miles Government for putting children’s lives in danger after plans were announced to remove detention as a last resort' from Queensland’s youth justice laws.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre and the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency have slammed the decision made by the NT Chief Minister Eva Lawler today to extend the curfew in Mparntwe/Alice Springs.
Read MoreToday, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan responded to the Yoorrook for Justice report. Prepared by the first formal truth-telling process into injustices experienced by First Peoples in Victoria, the Yoorrook for Justice report made 46 recommendations for crucial change of the state’s legal system.
Read MoreThe Allan Government’s gutless backflip on changes to youth bail laws will harm generations of Victorian children, and keep children needlessly locked up away behind bars in pre-trial detention.
Read MoreThe Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and the Human Rights Law Centre are calling on the Albanese Government to act on age pension discrimination, after the High Court today declined to hear an appeal in the legal challenge seeking equal access to the age pension for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Read MoreFollowing many delays, the coronial inquest into the police shooting death of Warlpiri and Luritja teenager Kumanjayi Walker is set to recommence on 22 February 2024 to hear from the last two witnesses - former NT police officer Zachary Rolfe and Sergeant Lee Bauwens.
Read MoreChange the Record and the Human Rights Law Centre are calling on the Miles Government to overhaul the state’s outdated, punitive youth justice system and redirect funding towards a future where no child grows up in a prison cell.
Read MoreSouth Australian community services, human rights advocates and First Nations organisations are calling on the Malinauskas Government to raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14.
Read MoreAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, human rights, social services, health, youth, religious and legal advocates have expressed deep concerns in an open letter about the mistreatment of children in the Victoria’s youth prisons.
Read MoreThe United Nations torture prevention body has formally terminated its visit to Australia after being forced to leave the country early in October following the prevention of full access to prisons and mental health facilities in New South Wales and Queensland.
Read MoreTasmania is set to become the first Australian jurisdiction to ensure no child under 14 years old will grow up in a jail cell, in an announcement welcomed by the National Raise the Age campaign, a coalition of more than 130 organisations.
Read MoreA joint statement signed by over 100 health, legal, social, community services providers, advocates and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Organisations today reiterated calls for Attorneys-General to stop jailing 10 year old children and raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years old, with no exceptions.
Read MoreKumanjayi Walker’s family are a step closer to the truth behind his death, after Coroner Armitage yesterday dismissed a request from former Constable Zachary Rolfe to remove herself from the inquest.
Read MoreNext week on 7 November 2023, being intoxicated in public will finally be decriminalised. This is an historic and long overdue reform, with laws repealing the offence coming into effect next week.
Read MoreThe Allan Government’s new bail laws will not meet minimum human rights standards and will mean people, including children and young people, are still needlessly funnelled into prisons, according to the Human Rights Law Centre.
Read MoreThe Allan Government’s pause on changes to youth bail laws will cause preventable harm to Victoria’s children and young people, and keep children and young people needlessly locked up behind bars while waiting for a trial, says the Human Rights Law Centre.
Read MoreThe family of Veronica Marie Nelson, a strong Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman who passed away in custody, have renewed their calls to the Andrews Government to deliver wholesale and urgent reform of Victoria’s bail laws.
Read MoreThousands of people will continue to be senselessly funnelled into Victoria’s prisons by the Andrews Government under deferred proposed changes to bail laws, according to the Human Rights Law Centre.
Read MoreA coalition of Aboriginal, community, justice and human rights organisations says that as new NT laws to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years come into effect today, there is an urgent need for the NT Government to work with Aboriginal communities and organisations to ensure supports and services are available when and where children need them.
Read MoreA coalition of over 40 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, health, legal, social, community services and youth advocacy organisations from across Victoria have called on Premier Daniel Andrews and Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes to commit to ruling out any new powers for police over children, once the age of criminal responsibility is raised.
Read MoreA report from ACT parliament’s Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety, tabled on Friday, failed to recommend necessary changes to proposed legislation to raise the age. Advocates have been unequivocal in calling for the Barr Government to raise the age to at least 14 with no carve-outs.
Read MoreThe Federal Court of Australia has dismissed the legal challenge seeking fair and equal access to the age pension for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Read MoreKumanjayi Walker’s family are a step closer to the truth behind his death, after the Northern Territory Court of Appeal today dismissed an appeal from Zachary Rolfe said the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA).
Read MoreThe Australian Government must strengthen its commitment to human rights in its laws, policies and practices, the Human Rights Law Centre said today in response to new comprehensive data looking at the state of human rights in Australia.
Read MoreThe ACT Government has been criticised for its failure to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 right away, with justice advocates saying the welfare of 12- and 13-year-old children cannot wait until 2025.
Read MoreThe Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes will today give evidence to the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the first formal truth-telling process into injustices experienced by First Peoples in Victoria, where she is expected to be questioned about the over imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Read MoreThe Andrews government has today announced its intention to raise the age of criminal responsibility to only 12 years old. The Government’s commitment to consider raising the age to 14 by 2027 is too little, too late, and risks exposing an entire generation of children to the quicksand of the criminal legal system.
Read MoreAn open letter signed by 126 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, health, legal, community and human rights organisations today reiterated calls to Attorneys-General to stop jailing 10 year old kids and raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years old, with no exception.
Read MoreRaising the age to 14 is the absolute bare minimum reform the Andrews Government must make. Anything less than 14 will continue to be an abject failure by the Andrews Government to uphold the human rights of children and young people in Victoria.
Read More60 Victorian organisations in the Aboriginal, legal, health, faith, youth and human rights sectors, including the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, VACCHO, Jesuit Social Services and Human Rights Law Centre, have in a joint letter called on Premier Daniel Andrews and Attorney-General Jacyln Symes to commit to raising the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14, no younger, and with no exceptions.
Read MoreThe family of Veronica Marie Nelson, a strong Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman who passed away in custody, are calling on the Andrews Government to implement urgent changes to the state's bail laws and have asked that these reforms are referred to as Poccum’s Law.
Read MoreIn response to Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes’ announcement addressing Victoria’s bail laws, the Human Rights Law Centre calls on the Andrews Government to listen to Aboriginal organisations and expert advice, and commit to wholesale bail reform as recommended by Coroner McGregor.
Read MoreThe coronial inquest into the police-shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker will next week hear evidence from Aboriginal experts on community-led solutions to prevent future deaths in custody of Aboriginal people.
Read MoreThe United Nations torture prevention body has formally terminated its visit to Australia after being forced to leave the country early in October following the prevention of full access to prisons and mental health facilities in New South Wales and Queensland.
Read MoreA legal challenge against the Australian Government, seeking fair and equal access to the age pension for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, will be heard by the Full Federal Court. Proud Wakka Wakka man Uncle Dennis* is bringing the case, where the Federal Government will face court for its failure to close the gap in life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous people.
Read MoreAustralia faces a looming international deadline to fully implement the UN’s anti-torture protocol - by 20 January 2023 - but Australian governments are not on track to meet this deadline.
Read MoreThe Victorian Government has made a formal decision not to give Victorian police any new powers to arrest or lock people up in police cells once public drunkenness is decriminalised in November 2023.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre will today call on the Andrews government to fast track critical reforms that would immediately reduce the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experiencing injustice at the hands of the criminal legal system, in evidence to be heard by the Yoorrook Justice Commission.
Read MoreAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, health, legal and human rights organisations today welcomed the release of a government report and called on Attorneys-General to immediately act on its recommendation to raise the age of criminal responsibility with no exceptions.
Read MoreThe national Raise the Age alliance is calling for Attorneys-General to release a secret government report and immediately enact its recommendation to raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14.
Read MoreThis week, the Australian Government is set to be questioned by the United Nations anti-torture watchdog on its compliance with the UN’s anti-torture treaty - the Convention Against Torture. Change the Record, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services and the Human Rights Law Centre have briefed the Committee overseeing Australia’s compliance with the anti-torture treaty, and call on the Albanese Government to end human rights abuses behind bars ahead of the country’s report being considered this week.
Read MoreAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal and human rights organisations are reiterating calls for a new independent body to investigate allegations of police misconduct in light of research that has found public trust in Victoria Police has hit a new low after countless scandals.
Read MoreWe express profound concern that the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) has been forced to take the drastic measure of suspending its visit to Australia due to obstruction encountered while attempting to carrying out its mandate during its visit to Australia under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT).
Read MoreA statement of concern from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), Community Legal Centres NSW, Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC), Amnesty International Australia, Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT), First People’s Disability Network Australia (FPDNA) and Change the Record.
Read MoreIn the lead up to the 2022 Victorian state election, the Human Rights Law Centre this week launched its state election platform calling on all parties to end the state’s mass imprisonment crisis and create a fairer legal system for everyone.
Read MoreIn 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.
Read MoreThe North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), with support from the Human Rights Law Centre, is taking part in the coronial inquest into the police-shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker.
Read MoreToday a coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal, human rights and youth justice organizations will reiterate calls for the Victorian government to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14 with the backing of 65,799 Victorian residents who have signed the petition to raise the age.
Read MoreAfter 15 years of operation, key laws sustaining the discriminatory Northern Territory Intervention will end on Sunday.
Read MoreAustralia’s only First Nations justice coalition Change the Record welcomes the Tasmanian Government’s commitment to enact laws ensuring children under the age of 14 years old will not be sent to youth prisons. However, the Coalition urges the Tasmanian Government to fully implement the advice of legal and medical experts and raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years old to protect very young children from any harmful engagement with the criminal justice system.
Read MoreLong overdue laws that will end the routine strip searching of children in Tasmanian jails passed the Tasmanian Parliament yesterday.
Read MoreThe Federal Court has ordered that a case against the Federal Government, seeking fair and equal access to the age pension for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, will be heard by the Full Court of the Federal Court later this year to determine important questions of law.
Read MoreA Federal Court case against the federal government, seeking fair and equal access to the Age Pension for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, will return to court today for an interim hearing.
Read MoreWe’re thrilled to announce that Nick Espie has joined the Centre as a Legal Director leading the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ rights team, commencing in 2022. Nick is an Arrernte man who has around two decades of legal practice and policy experience working on Aboriginal justice issues.
Read MoreA Victorian parliamentary inquiry has called for an overhaul of the state's bail laws following its review of the state’s criminal legal system.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre stands in solidarity with the family of Kumanjayi Walker and the Yuendumu community today.
Read MorePeak national justice, child welfare and advocacy groups have joined calls for the Northern Territory Government to stop using spit hoods and restraints on children.
Read MoreToday, the Andrews Government announced that the City of Yarra, Shepperton, Dandenong and Castlemaine will be the trial site locations where the public health response to public drunkenness will be tested.
Read MoreChange the Record, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services and the Human Rights Law Centre condemned the Northern Territory Government for the skyrocketing number of children it has criminalised and imprisoned - including a ten year old child.
Read MoreAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and human rights organisations are calling on the Queensland Government to implement measures to prevent human rights abuses behind bars.
Read MoreThe Raise the Age Coalition has condemned the decision of the Meeting of Attorneys-General to develop a plan to raise the age of criminal responsibility to only 12 years old as inadequate and failing to improve the lives of children and young people.
Read MoreThe Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and the Human Rights Law Centre are calling a proposal made at yesterday’s Meeting of Attorneys General (MAG) to develop a plan to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years old, an absolute missed opportunity to look after children.
Read MoreAustralia’s state and territory governments are being urged to follow the lead of the ACT, after it today released a new report outlining its roadmap to raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility.
Read MoreA Federal Court case has been launched against the Morrison Government, seeking fair and equal access to the Age Pension for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Read MoreNewly obtained data shows that, over a 7-month period, women in Tasmanian jails were subjected to 841 strip searches. Just 3 items were found as a result of the invasive searches.
Read MoreThe Andrews government should use the inquiry into Victoria’s criminal justice system as the catalyst to finally end mass imprisonment, the Human Rights Law Centre will argue in its evidence to the inquiry.
Read MoreAustralia faces a looming international deadline to fully implement the UN’s anti-torture protocol – by the end of January 2022 – but no state, territory or Commonwealth government except for Western Australia is on track to meet this deadline.
Read MoreThe Andrews Government must urgently reform its punitive bail laws if it is to meet the justice targets it signed on to in the new Closing the Gap Agreement last year.
Read MoreToday marks one year since Australia’s top legal officers failed to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14, despite being handed an expert report overwhelmingly recommending that all states and territories and the federal government change laws to keep children out of prison.
Read MoreThe Australian Government has today refused to accept the calls of dozens of countries to stop imprisoning children under the age of 14 years old, and to raise the age of criminal responsibility.
Read MoreAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal, human rights and civil liberties organisations have called on the Andrews government to take urgent steps to increase transparency and prevent mistreatment behind bars after a new report has highlighted serious weaknesses in disciplinary processes in Victorian prisons.
Read MoreReflecting on this past week and the looming January 2022 deadline for OPCAT implementation in Victoria, the Andrews Government’s failure to progress implementation of a system of robust, independent detention oversight is incomprehensible.
Read MoreToday the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights will hear evidence into the Morrison Government’s punitive ParentsNext program, which makes life harder for mums with young children.
Read MoreThe Andrews government must take urgent steps to prevent mistreatment and reduce the number of people being funneled into prisons, the Human Rights Law Centre said today, after a new report uncovered serious and systemic wrongdoing in Victoria’s private and public prisons.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Berejiklian Government to ban the routine strip searching of young people in NSW prisons following a damning report by the NSW Ombudsman.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has welcomed a new report by the Victorian Commissioner for Children and Young People calling for major reform of Victoria’s youth legal system, including raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years without exception.
Read MoreIn an unusual move, 48 organisations have today publicly released their submissions to the Council of Attorneys-General working group on raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility in Australia from 10 years old.
Read MoreThe bail reforms introduced in 2018, which were intended to target men who commit violent offences, have in practice impacted women experiencing poverty and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women the most.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has slammed punitive new laws passed by the Gunner government in the Northern Territory late last night.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has today slammed punitive new laws set to be introduced by the Gunner government in the Northern Territory this week.
Read MoreChildren as young as ten in Tasmania can currently be arrested, strip searched and locked up in prison cells. This is out-of-step with medical evidence, human rights law and international standards, with the median age of criminal responsibility worldwide being 14 years old.
Read MoreLast night, the Palaszczuk Government in Queensland passed dangerous new laws that will only serve to trap Queensland children in the criminal legal system.
Read MoreToday marks 30 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody handed down its historic report with over three hundred recommendations to end Black deaths in custody. It is a national shame that in the three decades since, state, territory and Commonwealth governments have failed to implement the majority of those recommendations - and as a result our people are still dying at horrendous rates.
Read MoreAboriginal-led, medical, legal and human rights organisations have today slammed the Morrison Government’s call to de-prioritise raising the age of criminal responsibility across Australia after more than three years of delays and time-wasting.
Read MoreToday, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal, human rights and civil liberties organisations wrote to the Acting Premier raising concerns about the ongoing use of 14 day quarantine in prisons.
Read MoreToday the Victorian Government made two announcements celebrating prison construction. It is their sixth media release regarding prison construction works in the last six months and highlights the alarming expansion of the carceral system in Victoria.
Read MoreNew laws proposed by the Queensland Government will entrench children from marginalised backgrounds in the quick sand of the youth legal system.
Read MoreToday, historic and long overdue public drunkenness reforms have passed the Victorian Parliament.
Read MoreToday, reforms to decriminalise public drunkenness will be debated in the Victorian Parliament. Victoria is one of only two states in Australia yet to act on the recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody 30 years ago to decriminalise public drunkenness.
Read MoreAustralia’s human rights performance was in the spotlight tonight as the Australian Government appeared before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for its major human rights review that happens every four to five years.
Australia’s human rights performance will be in the spotlight tonight as the Australian Government appears before the Human Rights Council in Geneva for its major human rights review that happens every four to five years.
The Human Rights Law Centre has today welcomed an interim Senate report condemning Rio Tinto’s destruction of a 46,000 year-old Aboriginal site at Juukan Gorge in WA and recommending a suite of measures to improve protection of other significant sites across Australia.
Read MoreThe Andrews Government will today introduce long overdue reforms to decriminalise public drunkenness into the Victorian Parliament.
Read MoreThe Andrews Government has today released the Expert Reference Group’s (ERG’s) report on public drunkenness reform, which recommends decriminalising public drunkenness and the implementation of a public health response.
Read MoreThe inquest into the death in custody of proud Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman Veronica Nelson will continue tomorrow, with its second directions hearing in the Coroners Court of Victoria.
Read MoreThe national Raise the Age coalition of medical, legal, Aboriginal-led and human rights organisations today congratulated the new ACT Labor-Greens Government on its historic commitment to change the law in the ACT and raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility.
Read MoreWe’re thrilled to announce that Meena Singh will join us as a Legal Director leading the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ rights team.
Ruth Barson, who has led the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ rights team for the past six years will return next year, after parental leave, to develop and lead our new climate justice work.
Read MoreTwo of Australia’s leading human rights organisations - the Human Rights Law Centre and Amnesty International Australia - are calling on the Gutwein Government to prohibit the routine strip searching of children. The Tasmanian Government is currently considering laws that the two national organisations say miss the mark when it comes to the need to protect children from harm and prohibit routine strip searches.
Read MoreAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal and human rights organisations are calling on Premier Andrews to ensure greater police accountability following recent concerning incidents of police violence.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has welcomed the removal of Rio Tinto’s CEO, Jean-Sébastien Jacques, head of Corporate Relations Simone Niven and Head of Iron Ore Chris Salisbury following the company’s detonation of a 46,000 year old Aboriginal sacred site in the Pilbara region, Western Australia.
Read MoreThe Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) will not prosecute two police officers involved in the death of proud Yorta Yorta woman, Tanya Day, despite the Coroner referring the police officers involved in her death for criminal investigation, saying she believed “an indictable offence may have been committed”.
Read MoreWith reports today of nearly 130 young people - some as young as 13 - being locked in their cells indefinitely due to the threat of COVID-19, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal and human rights organisations are calling on the Palaszczuk Government to reduce the number of children locked away in Queensland prisons rather than isolating and harming them.
Read MoreIn response to Premier Andrew’s declaration of a state of disaster in Victoria, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal and human rights organisations are calling for strong safeguards to ensure that police powers are exercised fairly and proportionately during the public health crisis.
Read MoreAboriginal-led, medical, legal and human rights organisations today condemned State and Territory lawmakers who failed at today’s Council of Attorneys-General meeting to commit to raise the age at which children can be locked away in a prison.
Read MoreNext week Australian lawmakers will have a historic opportunity at the Council of Attorneys-General Meeting on Monday 27 July to change laws that currently allow children as young as 10 to be arrested by police, charged with an offence, hauled before a court and locked away in a prison.
Read MoreWith COVID-19 entering a Victorian prison and youth detention centres, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, legal and human rights organisations are demanding the Andrews Government commit to safely reducing the number of people locked away in Victorian prisons.
Read MoreThe inquest into the death in custody of proud Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman Veronica Nelson began today with its first mention in the Coroners Court of Victoria. Veronica was 37 years old when she died.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has told the Senate Committee tasked with investigating the Federal Government's response to COVID-19 that human rights must be at the centre of the Government’s actions, both now and into the future.
Read MoreThe Aboriginal Peak Organisations of the Northern Territory (APO NT), NT Council of Social Services (NTCOSS) and Human Rights Law Centre have joined hundreds of organisations and individuals around Australia in calling for a permanent increase in Jobseeker and other social security payments.
Read MoreToday, 35 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and human rights organisations have called on the global Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB), based in the Netherlands, to strip Rio Tinto of its status as a global human rights leader, following the company’s blasting of a 46,000 year old Aboriginal sacred site in the Pilbara region, Western Australia.
Read MoreLegal and human rights groups condemn the heavy-handed, policing response to a public health emergency, rather than the much-needed support communities need to prevent COVID-19 transmission. We stand in solidarity with the 3000 people in hard lockdown.
Read MoreToday the Commonwealth Government is expected to release Closing the Gap justice targets to address the crisis of Aboriginal incarceration that would see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples waiting until 2093 to reach parity with non-Indigenous Australians.
Read MoreA coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, medical and human rights legal experts have today launched a campaign calling on all Australian governments to change laws that can lead to 10 year old kids being sent to prison.
Read MoreThe Australian Government should support an urgent resolution in the UN Human Rights Council for an independent investigation into systemic racism, police brutality and violence against peaceful protest in the US, say Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and human rights organisations.
Read MoreToday seven legal and human rights groups condemned the approach of many Australian governments to recent Black Lives Matter and refugee rights protests, stating it is inconsistent with our democratic rights and freedoms.
Read MoreWA police will no longer have the power to lock up people who cannot pay their fines with the passing of the Fines, Penalties and Infringement Notices Enforcement Amendment Bill 2019.
Read MoreToday Aboriginal and non-Indigenous legal, health and social justice organisations responded to Government claims that they were working on “ambitious” targets; and called for real and decisive action to end Blak deaths in custody.
Read MoreThe rise in racially motivated incidents targeting people from Asian backgrounds during the COVID-19 pandemic reinforces the need for the Andrew’s Government to fix Victoria’s anti-hate laws, a Parliamentary committee will be told today.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is united in solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and organisations who have long been fighting for an end to police brutality and mass imprisonment, and accountability for deaths in custody.
Read MoreChange the Record, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services and the Human Rights Law Centre have welcomed today’s High Court decision confirming that the use of tear gas on children in Don Dale in 2014 was unlawful.
Read MoreChange the Record calls on state, territory and Commonwealth governments to commit to end Aboriginal deaths in custody in the wake of George Floyd’s death in America - which followed two fatal police shootings here in Australia late last year.
Read MoreAn alliance of civil society and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and senior academics have told the Senate Committee tasked with investigating the Morrison Government's response to COVID-19 that there must be greater oversight of places of detention both during the pandemic and beyond.
Read MoreWhile there are some promising developments in the Victorian Government's new Youth Justice Strategic Plan particularly the Strategy’s focus on early intervention, diversion, and restorative justice – the Strategy does not include a clear roadmap during the ten year period for keeping kids under 14 out of prison.
Read MoreIn an important decision, the Supreme Court of Victoria has found that the Victorian Government has prima facie breached their duty to take reasonable care for the health of a person behind bars during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read MoreThe Federal Government should permanently raise social security payments and end the demonisation of those locked out of paid work to ensure that no child or adult in Australia is trapped in poverty.
Read MoreThe Fitzroy Legal Service and Human Rights Law Centre have filed a case in the Supreme Court of Victoria arguing that the Andrews Government must take steps to keep people in prison and the broader community safe from the risks posed by COVID-19.
Read MoreIn a landmark decision, the Coroner in the inquest into Tanya Day's death in police custody has referred Victoria Police officers to the Director of Public Prosecutions for criminal investigation, saying that she believes “an indictable offence may have been committed”.
Read MoreToday, the Coroner in the inquest into our mum’s death referred two police officers for criminal investigation. This isn’t the end of the road, but it is the beginning of justice for our mum. This is a historic day for Aboriginal people in this country, and a bitter-sweet day for our family.
Read MoreThe Coroner investigating the death in police custody of Yorta Yorta woman, Tanya Day, will hand down her findings on 9 April 2020. The findings will be delivered via video link, five months after the coronial inquest concluded, and over two years since Tanya’s death.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is calling for strong safeguards as governments grant police new, sweeping powers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read MoreIn order to slow the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), the Australian Government and health experts have recommended that we use the most effective measure to help ‘flatten the curve’: social distancing. This is, however, impossible in our prisons.
Read MoreAny attempt by the Morrison Government to turn the Northern Territory into a Cashless Debit Card trial site during the COVID-19 pandemic would be irresponsible and potentially deadly.
Read MoreThe Andrews Government must take a stand against rising hate in the Victorian community, say a coalition of Union, civil society, faith-based and human rights groups who will give evidence on Wednesday to a Parliamentary Inquiry considering proposed changes to Victoria’s anti-vilification laws.
Read MoreChief law-makers in Australia must promote the rights of children with a commitment to raise the age at which children can be locked up, the Human Rights Law Centre has told a Working Group tasked to consider the age of legal responsibility.
Read MoreToday as we celebrate Human Rights Day, we are delighted to launch our Annual Report for 2019.
Read MoreThis week all Australian Attorneys-General will have a historic opportunity to promote the rights of children with a commitment to raise the age at which children can be locked up.
Read MoreThe children of Tanya Day – Belinda, Warren, Apryl and Kimberly – have been awarded the Tim McCoy Award for their outstanding achievement in advocacy of human rights and justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Victoria.
Read MoreRight now, across Australia, Aboriginal people are being killed by police.
We’d like to send our condolences to Kumanjayi Walker’s family. Just this weekend, Kumanjayi, a young 19 year old Aboriginal man, was shot and killed by police in his home.
Read More“We know that our mum died in custody because police targeted her for being drunk in public and then failed to properly care for her after they locked her up. We know that racism was a cause of our mum’s death. Both individual police officers and Victoria Police as a whole must be held to account. Without accountability, more Aboriginal people will die in custody.”
Read MoreShocking stories of police brutally show the need for immediate action by the Andrews Government to provide Victoria’s police corruption watchdog (IBAC) the power and tools it needs to independently investigate serious police misconduct, so that police are not investigating their own.
Read MoreA proposed law that would allow the Morrison Government to force a new form of income control onto thousands of people in the Northern Territory should be rejected, the Human Rights Law Centre has told a Senate Committee.
Read MoreUN child rights experts have called on all Australian Governments to raise the age at which they can lock children up from 10 to 14 years and to ban the use of solitary confinement and the use of force including restraints on children.
Read MoreThe Morrison Government’s attempt to force a new form of income control in the Northern Territory should be opposed, the Human Rights Law Centre has told a Senate Committee inquiring into the Bill.
Read MoreA landmark, new standard has been set in international human rights guidelines with the expert UN Child Rights Committee recommending laws be changed to ensure that children under the age of 16 years "may not legally be deprived of their liberty".
Read MorePress Conference: The family of Tanya Day will read a statement and take questions from the media at 3:45pm today in Melbourne.
Read MoreWatch the statement a 12 year old Arrernte/Garrwa child from central Australia delivered to the UN Human Rights Council.
Read MoreThis week at the United Nations in Geneva, the Committee on the Rights of the Child is reviewing the Australian Government’s track record when it comes to upholding and protecting the rights of children.
Read MoreTomorrow in Geneva, a 12 year old Arrernte/Garrwa boy from central Australia, will give a heartfelt speech at the world’s peak human rights body with a simple message for Australian governments: stop sending 10 year old children to to prison.
Read MoreThe Coroner investigating the death in police custody of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day has released the CCTV footage of the moment when Tanya Day fell and hit her head when she was locked in a police cell in Castlemaine.
Read MoreThe coronial inquest into the death in police custody of Yorta Yorta woman, Tanya Day, commences today.
Read MoreIn the week before the inquest into Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day’s death in police custody, the Andrews Government has announced that it will abolish the offence of public drunkenness and replace it with an Aboriginal-led, public health response.
Read MoreNewly obtained data shows that in one month, 403 strip searches were conducted on children at two youth prisons in NSW. Only one item – a ping pong ball – was found as a result of these strip searches.
Read MoreThe Queensland Government’s decision to move kids out of police watch houses “as soon as humanly possible” is welcomed, but the Human Rights Law Centre calls on the Government to publicly commit to a long-term solution so that no child is warehoused in a police watch house again.
Read MoreDuring NAIDOC week, the Human Rights Law Centre is joining the National Peak Body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) to call on the Federal Government to commit to retaining the Indigenous Legal Assistance Program (ILAP).
Read MoreKing & Wood Mallesons (KWM) and The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Law Faculty have announced the launch of an internship program specifically for Indigenous students studying law at the university.
Read MoreThis week the United Nations heard a scathing statement about a discriminatory Federal Government parenting scheme that targets Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents and single mothers.
Read MoreOvernight the United Nations Human Rights Council heard of the alarming rates at which Australian governments are imprisoning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.
Read MoreThe Coroner in the inquest into Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day’s death in police custody has agreed to look at whether systemic racism played a role in Ms Day’s treatment and ultimate death.
Read MoreIn collaboration with international NGOs, the Human Rights Law Centre has written to UN member countries to plea for the UN’s human rights mechanisms to be adequately funded.
Read MoreI woke up this morning thinking of the men and women still held by the Australian Government on Manus and Nauru after six long years.
Thinking of First Nations people, LGBTIQ communities, migrant communities and others.
Read MoreTonight’s Four Corners investigation, Inside the Watch House, raises serious questions about whether the Queensland Government is breaching its own laws by warehousing children in police cells designed for adults.
Read MoreThe hearing in the coronial inquest into Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day’s death in police custody continues today, as new data shows that at the time of Tanya Day’s death in 2017, Aboriginal women were 10 times more likely to be targeted for public drunkenness than non-Indigenous women.
Read MoreThe third directions hearing into the tragic death in police custody of Yorta Yorta woman, Tanya Day, will be held on Tuesday 30 April.
Read MorePeople in prison in Western Australia were subjected to close to 1 million strip searches over the past 5 years, a shocking report by the Independent Inspector of Custodial Services has found.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre will today provide a submission to a Northern Territory Parliamentary Committee supporting landmark reforms to youth justice laws, however arguing that the Government should follow through with its promise to raise the age of criminal responsibility.
Read MoreOn the anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, over 80 Aboriginal, health, human rights, housing, legal and women’s organisations are calling on Premier Andrews to abolish the offence of public drunkenness – a key recommendation of the Royal Commission.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre joined community organisations to call on the Parliament not to rush to pass more income tax cuts before the elections, and to reverse those already legislated to go to high income-earners after 2020.
Read MoreThe Morrison Government cannot delay scrapping its discriminatory ParentsNext program, with a Senate Inquiry finding that the program is causing “anxiety, distress and harm” for many parents, including for women escaping violence.
Read MoreAboriginal and human rights organisations today welcomed the Australian Medical Association’s call for all states and territories to raise the age when children can be held criminally responsible to at least 14 years.
Read MoreTanya Day’s family is calling on Premier Daniel Andrews and Attorney General Jill Hennessy to end deaths in custody by changing the law in Victoria.
Read MoreThe second directions hearing in the coronial inquest into Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day’s death in police custody will commence today.
Read MoreThe second directions hearing into the tragic death in police custody of Yorta Yorta woman, Tanya Day, will be held on Tuesday 19 March.
Read MoreThe Supreme Court today overturned the sentence of a 12 year old Aboriginal boy caught up by Western Australia’s draconian mandatory sentencing laws.
Read MoreOn International Women’s Day the UN will hear that the Australian Government is penalising single mothers with babies as young as six months through a punitive program that is making life harder for parents.
Read MoreAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and human rights organisations have told a Senate committee inquiring into the Federal Government’s ParentsNext program that it should recommend scrapping the program. The Government’s punitive ParentsNext program is making life harder for mums with babies as young as six months.
Read MoreA punitive Government parenting program is making life harder for mums with babies as young as six months, and raises questions about compliance with Australia’s sex and race discrimination laws.
Read MoreThe Australian Bureau of Statistics released data last week that shows governments across Australia are now forcing more than 3,600 women into prisons. This marks an increase of 10 per cent from the previous year - more than double the rate of men’s, which increased by four per cent.
Read MoreTo mark the anniversary of the release of the Royal Commission into Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory’s final report, the Change the Record Coalition including human rights organisations is calling on the NT Gunner Government to raise the age of criminal responsibility and get children out of harmful youth prisons.
Read MoreDon Dale is ablaze almost one year since the Royal Commission recommended it be closed. While the Northern Territory Government accepted all 226 recommendations from the Royal Commission, Shahleena Musk, senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said that the Gunner Government has been all words, yet little action.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has submitted a report to the United Nations Child Rights Committee showing that Australian governments are failing to protect the rights of vulnerable children. Australia is due to front the Child Rights Committee in Geneva in February, where the Government’s compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child will be measured. The HRLC’s report, ‘Justice for Children’, will inform the assessment of Australia.
Read MorePeople in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities struggling under the Australian Government’s racially discriminatory remote work-for-the-dole program would be left with less money to survive if a Bill before Parliament passes.
Read MoreRemote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities struggling under the Australian Government’s racially discriminatory remote work for the dole program would be worse off under a proposed new penalty system, a Senate Committee inquiry has been told.
Read MoreThe Australian Government should not be allowed to pick and choose what detention facilities can be scrutinised under the UN anti-torture treaty, the Human Rights Law Centre said in a submission to the Human Rights Commission.
Read MoreAustralian governments must put in place life-saving Custody Notification Services in every state and territory to address one of the most significant human rights issues in Australia – the preventable deaths in custody of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre believes in a future where human rights are universally understood, upheld and protected. We secure law and policy change that eliminates inequality, abuse and injustice and builds a society grounded in decency, compassion and respect. We are currently recruiting for two people to join our diverse team who have a strong, shared commitment to creating a better, fairer Australia.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has today asked the High Court to review a decision by the Northern Territory Court of Appeal regarding an Aboriginal man who was charged 28 times for breaching misguided and discriminatory alcohol laws.
Read MoreIndigenous advocate, Keenan Mundine, a former youth prisoner and principal consultant of Inside Out Aboriginal Justice Consultancy, has travelled to Geneva to address the UN Human Rights Council about the Turnbull Government’s failure to stop ten year old children being sent to prison.
Read MoreThe Australian Government will face intense scrutiny of its treatment of women and girls in next week at the United Nations.
Read MoreThe Turnbull Government’s second session as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the UN body responsible for protecting the rights and dignity of people all over the world, will begin in Geneva tomorrow.
Read MoreThe Northern Territory Supreme Court has today held that the now repealed Alcohol Protection Order (APO) regime was valid and not in breach of the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act.
Read MoreThe need for fair pay for work in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities has finally been acknowledged by the Federal Government but Budget measures outlined for its remote work for the dole scheme fall well-short of realising this in practice.
Read MoreAfter a week of intense negotiations, the Western Australian Government has avoided urgent Supreme Court action by allowing a newborn Aboriginal baby to remain with her mother.
Read MoreStatistics released this week reveal the Gunner Government is sending more men and women to prison than ever before – a direct result of Chief Minister Gunner’s failure to repeal mandatory sentencing laws.
Read MoreA report released by the Independent Inspector of Custodial Services has detailed horrific conditions and treatment in Western Australia’s only youth jail, Banksia Hill. The Inspector has called on the McGowan Government to take urgent action.
Read MoreAustralian governments must work together with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and organisations to address one of the most significant human rights issues in Australia – the over-imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Read MoreOne day after the Northern Territory Government gave an in principle promise to raise the age of criminal responsibility, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has released data painting a diabolical picture of punitive and out-of-date youth justice systems across Australia.
Read MoreThe Northern Territory today became the first government to commit to raising the age at which children can be charged and sent to prison.
Read MoreThe closure of the NT's notorious Don Dale youth prison couldn’t come soon enough, but the Turnbull Government needs to help fund the creation of safe, home-like facilities built for children to replace it.
Read MoreThe Federal Government has completely failed to lead in its response to the Northern Territory Royal Commission’s report on how to fix failing youth justice and child protection systems.Shahleena Musk, a Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the Federal Government was trying to wash its hands of responsibility at the very time it needed to show leadership to fix broken youth justice systems across Australia.
Read MoreThe Australian Government has ratified an important UN torture prevention treaty. The Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) is a mechanism established to prevent cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in places of detention.
Read MoreThe tide of condemnation against Australia’s human rights record is rising, with the United Nations expert panel on racial discrimination, criticising Australia’s failure to combat racism in a report released overnight.
Read MoreThe UN expert committee on racial discrimination issued a please explain to the Australian Government overnight, asking how it will eliminate racial discrimination in the remote ‘work for the dole’ program imposed on remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Read MoreFollowing Universal Children’s Day, doctors, lawyers, health and human rights experts from across Australia are calling for the age when children can be held criminally liable to be raised to at least 14 years so that primary school aged children are not entangled in the criminal justice system.
Read More“The Royal Commission laid bare the devastating cost of removing children from their families and locking them away behind bars. Prisons fail children," said Shahleena Musk.
Read MoreThe Australian Government was again grilled last night at the United Nations in Geneva with the Human Rights Committee taking aim at the failure to scrap the cruel fines laws that resulted in Ms Dhu’s tragic death in custody.
Read MoreThe Federal Government’s Welfare Reform Bill contains stigmatising and needlessly punishing measures, whilst giving too much power over the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote communities to an unelected bureaucrat.
Read More“This is the most significant UN position Australia has sought since the Security Council. Relatively speaking Australia is likely to be a positive force for reform on the Council, but if it wants to have the credibility required to be a true human rights leader it can't continue to blatantly breach international law itself. There's no doubt that it's cruel treatment of refugees will hamstring Australia's efforts on Council," said Emily Howie.
Read MoreIn a joint statement to the UN Human Rights Council, the Aboriginal Peak Organisations NT and Human Rights Law Centre urged the Australian Government to abandon its racially discriminatory ‘Community Development Program’ and replace it with an Aboriginal-led model.
Read MoreAdrianne Walters, Director of Legal Advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, said that state and territory criminal justice systems are out of balance and that governments around Australia have a responsibility to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities to stem the number of people being sent to prison.
Read MoreAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote communities are being denied basic rights and fair payment for work as a result of a racially discriminatory Federal Government program. That was the message the Human Rights Law Centre had for the Senate Committee examining the appropriateness and effectiveness of the Government’s remote work for the dole program.
Read More“The Government has not pointed to any evidence that these measures will help people recover from drug or alcohol addiction or get them into work. Rather, they will aggravate economic disadvantage, and perpetuate wrongful stereotypes about people who turn to Australia’s social safety net in times of need,” said Adrianne Walters.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre today welcomed the repeal of Northern Territory alcohol laws that unfairly and disproportionately impact Aboriginal people, but urged the Government to follow through on its promise to remove draconian paperless arrest laws.
Read MoreThe Federal Government’s Welfare Reform Bill contains unfair and needlessly punishing measures, while giving too much power over the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote communities to an unelected bureaucrat, the Human Rights Law Centre has told a Senate inquiry.
Read More“It’s been three years since the cruel death of Ms Dhu in police custody. Three years for the WA Government to right clear wrongs. Ms Dhu should never have been taken into custody in the first place," said Adrianne Walters.
Read More"The NT Government should be urgently finding ways to reduce Aboriginal peoples’ contact with the criminal justice system,” said Senior Lawyer Shahleena Musk.
Read MoreMore examples of the serious mistreatment and harm to children in Australian youth detention centres have been detailed in damning reports from Western Australia’s independent Inspector of Custodial Services and Queensland’s Youth Detention Inspectorate.
Read MoreAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to be denied basic rights the United Nations reported overnight.
Read MoreAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote communities are being denied basic rights, equal treatment and fair payment for work, as a result of Federal Government policy, the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency and the Human Rights Law Centre told a Senate inquiry.
Read MoreAs the Australian Government campaigns for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families are being torn apart by punitive laws and a lack of investment in community-based prevention programs, the UN heard overnight.
Read MoreThe over-imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women is a growing national crisis that is being overlooked by all levels of government in Australia, the Human Rights Law Centre and Change the Record said in a new report. HRLC's Adrianne Walters said, “The tragic and preventable death of Ms Dhu is a devastating example of what happens when the justice system fails Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.
Read More“All the data shows that these laws are being overwhelmingly used against Aboriginal people. Twenty-six years ago the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody made clear that locking someone up should only ever be a last resort and that police should be required to consider safer options,” said HRLC's Adrianne Walters.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre welcomes Commonwealth Attorney-General George Brandis' announcement today that Australia would ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and other mistreatment (OPCAT) by the end of the year.
Read MoreThe Government’s decision to regazette Barwon adult jail as a youth justice facility is an act of utter bad faith, say human rights lawyers.
Only yesterday the Victorian Court of Appeal upheld the Supreme Court’s decision that the Victorian Government acted unlawfully in gazetting Barwon adult prison as a youth justice facility.
Read MoreThe Victorian Court of Appeal today unanimously confirmed that the Victorian Government acted unlawfully in transferring children to the Barwon adult jail. The Court was hearing an appeal against last week's Supreme Court ruling.
Hugh de Kretser, Executive Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, said, “Jailing children in the state’s most notorious adult prison was a terrible mistake. The government needs to house these children in a safe, lawful and appropriate facility.”
The Victorian Court of Appeal will tomorrow hear the appeal against last week’s Supreme Court ruling that the Victorian Government acted unlawfully in transferring children to the Barwon adult jail. The Court of Appeal is expected to make its decision on the appeal at the end of tomorrow’s hearing.
Read MoreThe tragic death of Ms Dhu could have been prevented, said the Western Australian State Coroner today. The Coroner found that many of the police officers entrusted with her care acted unprofessionally and treated Ms Dhu inhumanely.
Read MoreMEDIA ALERT
Time: 8:45AM (AWST)
Date: Friday 16 December
Where: Steps of the Perth Central Law Courts, 501 Hay St, Perth WA 6000
The Western Australian State Coroner will hand down her findings in the inquest into Ms Dhu’s death in custody this Friday. She will also decide on whether to release harrowing footage showing Ms Dhu’s final hours.
Read MoreThe Supreme Court will today commence hearing the case against the Victorian Government to ensure no child is sent to Barwon maximum security adult jail. The Human Rights Law Centre and Fitzroy Legal Service are bringing the case after the government two weeks ago agreed not to transfer any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children to the prison.
Read MoreThe Northern Territory’s broad police protective custody powers will be scrutinized tomorrow in the High Court in a challenge brought by the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) and the Human Rights Law Centre on behalf of Aboriginal man, Anthony Prior.
Read MoreA new Supreme Court case has been launched against the Victorian Government to ensure no child is held in the Barwon maximum security adult prison.
Read MoreThe Andrews Government has today taken the extraordinary step and agreed not to transfer any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children to Barwon maximum security adult prison.
Read MoreFURTHER DETAILS: As part of the last minute back down, the Victorian Government has committed not to transfer any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child to an adult jail. The only extremely limited possibility for transfers is in exceptional circumstances and, even then, only on the advice of the Aboriginal Children’s Commissioner that the transfer is in the best interests of that child.
Read MoreLawyers who visited children held at Barwon maximum security adult prison yesterday say that the conditions are cruel and intolerable.
Read MoreThe Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) has filed a case in the Victorian Supreme Court challenging the lawfulness of the Government’s decision to send Aboriginal children as young as 16 years to Barwon maximum security adult prison.
Read MoreLawyers and advocates were today told that transfers of children from youth detention facilities to Victoria’s maximum-security adult prison are imminent.
Read MoreAboriginal and human rights organisations have said high rates of homelessness and overcrowding must be considered by the NT Royal Commission as key drivers of Aboriginal children entering the child protection and youth detention systems.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has told the Northern Territory Royal Commission and the Queensland youth justice review that current youth justice laws breach children’s human rights and must be changed.
Read MoreThe Northern Territory’s harsh police protective custody powers will come under scrutiny after the High Court agreed to hear a legal challenge brought by the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) on behalf of Mr Anthony Prior.
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Today the Western Australian Coroner conducting the inquest into Ms Dhu’s death in custody reserved the decision to publicly release harrowing footage of Ms Dhu’s death. The Coroner will deliver the decision at a date in the future.
Read MoreToday the Western Australian Coroner presiding over the inquest into Ms Dhu’s death in custody will consider whether to publicly release harrowing footage of Ms Dhu’s death.
Read MoreAustralia’s youth justice practices breach international human rights law, Amnesty International and the Human Rights Law Centre told the United Nations in a statement read before the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Read MoreAs the Northern Territory’s Royal Commission holds its first public hearing, leading Indigenous and human rights organisations are calling on the Federal and Northern Territory Governments to immediately protect the human rights of young people currently in detention.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre welcomed the announcement by the Turnbull Government of a Royal Commission into youth detention in the Northern Territory. The HRLC had expressed extreme disappointment over the government’s lack of consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations when initially announcing the inquiry.
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