Australia’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 More
Long overdue laws that will end the routine strip searching of children in Tasmanian jails passed the Tasmanian Parliament yesterday.
Read More
Australia’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 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 More
In 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 More
Next 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 More
A 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 More
The 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 More
Legal experts and human rights advocates today condemned Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s refusal to resolve the urgent medical emergency for children on Nauru when he ruled out negotiating with Labor and the crossbench.
Read More
Human rights lawyers are calling on WA Corrective Services Minister, Francis Logan, to categorically prohibit solitary confinement for children, in the wake of a report by the Independent Inspector of Custodial Services into alleged ill-treatment at the notorious Banksia Hill Youth Detention Centre.
Read More
This week marks the two year anniversary since the horrific images of child abuse in Don Dale youth prison were beamed across the nation, leading to the Northern Territory Royal Commission.
Read More
Children in the Northern Territory will be better protected from Don Dale-like abuse behind bars with the Gunner Government today passing landmark laws that will prohibit harm to children. The laws will solidify key recommendations of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory.
Read More
A 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 More
One 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 More
The Turnbull Government will tonight begin Australia’s first ever 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.
Read More
The 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 More
The UN expert committee on racial discrimination has demanded to know why Australia is out of step with the rest of the world in criminalising primary school aged children. All Australian states and territories currently have laws that allow children as young as ten years to be charged, brought before the courts, sentenced and imprisoned.
Read More