Australia rejects UN call to raise the age of criminal responsibility
The 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.
The Universal Periodic Review takes place every five years and involves other countries scrutinising Australia’s human rights record. In January, 30 countries from Sweden to Norway, Chile to Canada, recommended that Australia raise the age of criminal responsibility so that children as young as 10 are not prosecuted and jailed. In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children between the ages of 10 and 14 make up almost two thirds of the children in that age group locked away behind bars. The expert United Nations Child Rights Committee has previously stated that 14 is the minimum age at which children should be held legally responsible.
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, Change the Record and the Human Rights Law Centre joined the international condemnation of the Australian Government’s ongoing failure to raise the age.
Cheryl Axleby, Change the Record Co-Chair, said: “Australia’s treatment of First Nations peoples, and our children, is a national and international disgrace. Governments talk about Closing the Gap on the one hand, but build new prisons and lock up children as young as 10 years old with the other. Australia has been condemned by over 30 countries worldwide for our cruel and harmful treatment of predominantly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who are condemned to suffer behind bars instead of thriving in our communities, connected to culture and family. If the Morrison Government lacks the courage and decency to show leadership, we call on every state and territory government to step up and honour their promises to Close the Gap by raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years old.”
Priscilla Atkins, NATSILS Co-Chair, said: “It is appalling for Australia that five years since the last Universal Periodic Review, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people remain the most incarcerated people on earth, with a horrifying number of our young people trapped in the quicksand of the so called justice system. This Universal Periodic Review has been a missed opportunity for the Australian Government to reimagine the justice system and commit to ending the over-incarceration of our people, first and foremost by raising the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14.”
Meena Singh, Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, said: “Australia was given an opportunity to show national and international leadership by committing to raise the age of criminal responsibility and accepting other vital recommendations. Instead, it continued to fail Australian children, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, by refusing to raise the age. This means 10-year-old kids will continue to be prosecuted and locked up, and put on a path to adult offending. Children belong in playgrounds, not in police and prison cells.”
Media contact:
Sophie Trevitt, Change the Record: sophie@changetherecord.org.au 0431 843 095
Michelle Bennett, Human Rights Law Centre: michelle.bennett@hrlc.org.au 0419 100 519
Lucy Brown, NATSILS: lbrown@vals.org.au 0435 866 462
