People experiencing mental illness are being criminalised rather than supported in the community, the Human Rights Law Centre has said in a submission to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.

The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture announced they will visit Australia to shine a light on abuses in places of detention, including adult prisons, youth prisons, police lock-ups and immigration detention facilities.

This 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.

Overnight the United Nations Human Rights Council heard of the alarming rates at which Australian governments are imprisoning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

Paying another company to run the Australian Government’s offshore detention centre on Manus Island will not end the suffering of the men still trapped on the remote island, the Human Rights Law Centre said today in response to reports the Morrison Government will terminate Paladin’s contract once another company is appointed.

Abdul Aziz Muhamat, a refugee and human rights defender, addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva overnight to call out the Morrison Government’s continued cruel treatment of over 800 people still held on Nauru and Manus Island.

The 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.

Yesterday, the Federal Court of Australia ruled that the Australian Government has to consider applications for refugees on Manus and Nauru made under the Medevac laws that are made in line with standard Australian medical practices.

UN experts have once again urged the Australian Government to immediately provide healthcare to over 800 refugees in its care on Manus and Nauru and transfer those identified as requiring urgent care to Australia.

Developments in technology should not come at the cost of our human rights, the Human Rights Law Centre has told the United Nations’ independent expert on poverty.

Another man held by the Australian Government on Manus Island attempted suicide yesterday amidst an unprecedented medical crisis on Manus and Nauru. More than 50 incidents of attempted suicide and self-harm have been reported among the refugees on Manus and Nauru in the weeks since Federal Election.

In 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.