Submission: Ending racially discriminatory laws that lead to the over-imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission invited the Human Rights Law Centre to make a submission on how to end racially discriminatory laws that lead to the over-imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls.
The submission is made as part of the Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices) project, which is a national conversation led by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls to hear their priorities, challenges and aspirations for themselves, their families and their future.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are the fastest growing group of prisoners in Australia. The submission highlights racially discriminatory laws that contribute to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women getting trapped in the quicksand of the legal system. The submissions makes 25 recommendations with a focus on all levels of government committing to decarceration strategies to significantly reduce the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who are being separated from their communities and families and forced into prisons.
“The vast majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women will never enter the legal system, yet they are vastly over-represented behind bars. We need a new approach to justice – one that prioritises supporting women and girls to thrive in the community, rather than rather than pushing them into prisons,” said Monique Hurley, Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre.