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 MoreLong overdue laws that will end the routine strip searching of children in Tasmanian jails passed the Tasmanian Parliament yesterday.
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 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 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 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 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 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 MoreLegal 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 MoreHuman 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 MoreThis 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 MoreChildren 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 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 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 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 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 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“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 MoreAustralia was condemned overnight by a UN Human Rights Committee for its human rights record on a range of issues including refugees, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ rights, youth justice and democratic freedoms.
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 MoreThe Northern Territory Government has been ineffective in its response to child offending and is failing to make communities safer, the Human Rights Law Centre told the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory.
Read MoreHugh de Kretser, Executive Director with the Human Rights Law Centre told the Parliamentary Inquiry into Youth Justice Centres in Victoria that the Victorian Government has an opportunity to rebuild a safe, humane, age-appropriate youth justice system.
Read MoreOver 80 recommendations have been made to bring the Queensland youth justice system in line with international law and to respond to the individual developmental needs of each child. the review reminds us that just because a child is incarcerated, their human rights and entitlements must not be ignored.
Read MoreMEDIA ALERT: DOOR STOP PRESS CONFERENCE
9:15am Monday 3 April 2017
On the steps of the Victorian Supreme Court, 210 William St, Melbourne
with the Human Rights Law Centre’s Executive Director Hugh de Kretser
The Commission for Children and Young People released a scathing report, The Same Four Walls, detailing widespread isolation of children in Victoria’s youth justice centres. "You can’t respond to inadequate staffing levels by just leaving kids locked up in the cells for hours on end. It’s time for the Victorian Government to stop taking short cuts and to start properly resourcing the youth justice system," the HRLC's Alina Leikin.
Read MoreThe Victorian Government must address the underlying causes of damaging incidents in youth justice centres including staffing and lockdowns, the Human Rights Law Centre has said in a submission to a Victorian Parliamentary inquiry
Read MoreLess then a month before the Supreme Court hears the third legal challenge to the Victorian Government's decision to detain children at the Barwon maximum security adult prison, lawyers are concerned that the use of extreme practices appears to be increasing.
Read MoreDisturbing details have emerged about the incident on Monday night at the Barwon maximum security adult prison where the Victorian Government is currently detaining around 21 boys aged between 15 and 18 years old.
Read MoreA new Supreme Court case has been launched against the Victorian Government by the Human Rights Law Centre to stop the use of Barwon prison to detain children.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is deeply concerned about today’s announcement that the Victorian Government will move the management of the youth justice system in Victoria to the department that manages adult prisons.
Read MoreTonight’s ABC 7.30 episode detailing the serious assault on a 16-year old boy is further evidence that the Victorian Government must immediately act to remove children from Victoria’s most notorious adult jail. The boy suffered a fractured vertebrae and serious injuries to his face and head after being assaulted by fellow inmates on Monday.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is deeply disturbed about an incident at the Barwon jail yesterday resulting in serious injuries to a 16 year old boy and the reported use of capsicum spray on others. The injured boy was hospitalised overnight after being assaulted by other boys and is now being moved to Malmsbury youth justice facility.
Read MoreOn 17 November 2016, the Victorian Government decided to use the Grevillea Unit in the Barwon maximum security adult prison as a youth jail and started sending children as young as 15 there. This article explains why children do not belong in adult jails.
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 MoreIn a landmark case, the Supreme Court held that the Victorian Government’s decision to transfer children to Barwon maximum security adult jail was unlawful. The Court also found that the Government failed to properly consider the Victorian Charter of Human Rights.
Read MoreMEDIA ALERT
Date: Wednesday 21 December 2016
Time: 1.00pm
Location: On the steps of the Victorian Supreme Court, 210 William St, Melbourne
The Supreme Court will tomorrow begin hearing the case against the Victorian Government to ensure no child is sent to Barwon maximum security adult jail.
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 Commonwealth Government should ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), and all states and territories should increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 years, the Human Rights Law Centre has said in a submission to the Federal Children’s Commissioner.
Read More25 years since Australia ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), one in six children in Australia live below the poverty line and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children continue to face significant disadvantage.
Read MoreWestern Australia’s Independent Inspector of Custodial Services released a damning report on Friday showing that Western Australia’s policy of locking people up for unpaid fines disproportionately impacts vulnerable Aboriginal women.
The Human Rights Law Centre’s Senior Lawyer, Ruth Barson, said that the Inspector’s report is another reminder that Western Australia’s policy of locking people up for unpaid fines is unfair and out of date.
Read MoreEach year we join with the National Children’s and Youth Law Centre and King & Wood Mallesons to produce a special Children's Rights Edition of our monthly bulletin, Rights Agenda.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre is proud to have partnered with GetUp! and the Australian Churches for Refugees Taskforce to create and coordinate the #LetThemStay campaign for the 267 people linked to our High Court case.
Read MoreLast night was the first time in three days that the HRLC legal team had been allowed to speak with our client. HRLC’s Director of Legal Advocacy, Daniel Webb, said that it was unusual and unreasonable that access be so restricted.
Read MoreThe Australian Government appears to be rapidly moving to clear the way for fast-track deportations without notice of many of the 267 vulnerable people the Human Rights Law Centre represented in the recent High Court challenge to Australia’s role in offshore detention.
Read MoreOn Monday night our Director of Legal Advocacy, Daniel Webb, delivered a speech at the #LetThemStay community event in Melbourne...
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre’s Director of Legal Advocacy, Daniel Webb, has welcomed news that the Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, has written to the Prime Minister explaining that he wants the 267 men, women and children facing deportation following this week's High Court decision, to call Victoria home.
Read MoreThe High Court will hand down a decision tomorrow morning in a test case challenging the lawfulness of the Australian Government’s role in offshore detention on Nauru. The HRLC's Director of Legal Advocacy, Daniel Webb, said his client, her husband and their one-year old baby are terrified of being sent back to Nauru.
Read MoreThe Northern Territory’s youth justice system needs a thorough overhaul in light of fresh allegations of mistreatment emerging after the resignation of the Northern Territory’s Corrections Commissioner, Mr Ken Middlebrook.
Read MoreAustralia’s treatment of prisoners falls short of new international standards adopted by the United Nations General Assembly last week.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre has sent an urgent request to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment to investigate the mistreatment of young people (under 18 years) in Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, the Northern Territory’s main youth justice facility.
Read MoreThe High Court will sit in Canberra on 7-8 October to consider the lawfulness of the Australian Government’s role in offshore detention on Nauru, in a case brought by a group of people seeking asylum.
Read MoreThe Northern Territory’s youth justice practices risk breaching international human rights law by failing to prioritise the best interests of young people.
Read MoreAustralians don’t talk about self-harm, they don’t know much about self-harm, and they often don't realise it is the leading cause of death amongst 15-24 year olds in this country. The 2014 Children’s Rights Report seeks to change this by recommending a National Research Agenda on self-harm. This will help us find out more information to better understand the problem and develop solutions, which is a push in the right direction for Australia.
Read MoreThe Australian Government recently passed legislation to amend the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) and the Maritime Powers Act 2013 (Cth) making it even more difficult for asylum seeker children and children born to asylum seeker parents to be processed and settled in Australia.
Read MoreAustralia was recently reviewed by the UN Committee against Torture for its compliance with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, commonly referred to as the Convention Against Torture.
Read More‘How did it come to this?’ asks the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Professor Gillian Triggs about Australia rejecting fundamental human rights along with the international monitoring processes designed to give them effect.
Read MoreAt the most recent United Nations Human Rights Council in March, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture tabled a report outlining the current international benchmarks expected of countries when it comes to detaining children in criminal and civil contexts. The HRLC’s Senior Lawyer, Ruth Barson, said the report is a reminder that Australia needs to change its youth justice policies in order to meet international standards.
Read MoreJohn Tobin is a Professor in the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne. In 2011 he was awarded a national citation for outstanding contribution to student learning in the area of human rights, and is currently working with Professor Philip Alston from NYU on a comprehensive commentary on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Editor at large of Right Now, Andre Dao, recently caught up for a chat.
Read MoreMany children will benefit from removing discrimination in adoption laws, the independent review of Victoria’s adoption laws has been told in submissions lodged by community groups this week.
Read MoreThe mother of fifteen year old Melbourne boy, Tyler Cassidy, who was shot dead by police in 2008, has progressed her individual communication to the United Nation’s Human Rights Committee aimed at highlighting Australia’s failure to ensure police-related deaths are properly investigated by an independent body.
Read MoreSector leaders have called for a bipartisan commitment to permanently end the policy of mandatory and indefinite detention of asylum seeker children and families following the release of the Australian Human Rights Commission inquiry report. Our joint media release with Child Rights International, UNICEF Australia, Save the Children Australia, Plan International Australia and others...
Read MoreAustralia is in breach of its human rights obligations by allowing children to be sentenced to life in prison without the genuine possibility of parole, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has declared.
Read MoreAustralia’s form is bad and getting worse when it comes to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, the United Nations will hear tomorrow.
Read MoreEach year, King & Wood Mallesons and the National Children’s and Youth Law Centre, work with the Human Rights Law Centre to publish a special edition of our Monthly Bulletin, Rights Agenda, that focuses exclusively on human rights and legal issues affecting children and young people.
Read MoreThe HRLC has taken a range of urgent steps to prevent Sri Lankan asylum seekers being handed over to the very regime they claim to be fleeing.
Read MoreA new complaints mechanism under the UN Convention on Rights of Child is about to take effect. On 14 January 2014, Costa Rica became the tenth state to ratify the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure, meaning that three months’ time, on 14 April 2014, the complaints mechanism will come into force.
Read MoreUrgent action from the United Nations has been requested in an attempt to prevent the Queensland Government from passing draconian youth justice laws. The reforms include removing the principle that the detention of juveniles be a measure of last resort.
Read MoreA damning report into the operation of Victoria’s corrections system has identified the mistreatment of young people in detention and again highlighted the need for a fully independent prison watchdog. The Victorian Ombudsman’s report follows an investigation into the mistaken transfer of five children into the adult prison system.
Read MoreQueensland’s Newman government says it will change laws that protect juvenile offenders' identities next year to allow the names of children as young as 10 to be revealed if they commit a second offence.
Read MoreTasmania’s acting Commissioner for Children Elizabeth Daly has released the Alternatives to Secure Youth Detention in Tasmania report advocating for a justice reinvestment framework. The report calls for young offenders to be diverted away from the criminal justice system in compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Read MoreIn July, the Commonwealth Minister for the Status of Women, the Hon Julie Collins MP, and the Victorian Minister for Community Services, the Hon Mary Wooldridge MP, launched a new organisation, the Foundation to Prevent Violence Against Women and their Children. The Foundation has been set up to raise awareness and engage the community to prevent violence against women and their children. Natasha Stott Despoja AM has been appointed as Chair of the Foundation.
Read MoreA damning report into the operation of Western Australia’s youth corrections system has identified systemic failures and regular mistreatment of young people in detention. Ben Schokman, a lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the youth justice system is entirely failing Western Australia’s young people.
Read MoreA Queensland jail worker at the Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre has been granted bail after facing charges for a number of offences, including raping inmates, attempted sexual assaults and attempting to procure a sexual act by intimidation.
Read MoreA range of proposed reforms to the youth justice system currently being considered by the Queensland Government would be harmful, ineffective and raise serious human rights concerns, according to the HRLC.
Read MoreThe appointment of a National Children’s Commissioner will help to promote and protect the human rights of children and young people and ensure that the best interests of children are taken into account in the development of national law and policy.
Read MoreThe Australian Government should immediately stop transfers of migrant children – including unaccompanied migrant children and child asylum seekers – to offshore processing sites in Manus Island of Papua New Guinea, and Nauru.
Read MoreA Senate Committee report into the detention of Indonesian minors in Australia acknowledges systemic issues with Australia’s processes for detaining and prosecuting accused people smugglers, which have resulted in improper detention of Indonesian minors.
Read MoreThe Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission has released Held back: the experiences of students with disabilities in Victorian schools. The Commission undertook research examining the experiences of students with disabilities in Victorian Schools to learn how schools are meeting students’ needs, as well as understanding where practice might be improved.
Read MoreThe Human Rights Law Centre deplores the passage of the Migration Legislation Amendment (Offshore Processing and Other Measures) Bill 2011. The Bill, which was passed by the Senate on 16 August 2012 with both Government and Opposition support, enshrines extensive and alarming violations of human rights in Australian law.
Read MoreAustralia’s treatment of suspected people smugglers who said that they were children has breached international human rights law and raised serious questions about the resilience of our criminal justice system, Australian Human Rights Commission President Catherine Branson QC said.
Read MoreThe Australian Human Rights Commission Amendment (National Children’s Commissioner) Bill has been passed to create a new Commissioner position that will monitor whether Australia is adhering to its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Read MoreThe UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has handed down a damning report on Australia following its periodic review which took place on 4 and 5 June. The Committee’s “Concluding Observations” are a comprehensive set of recommendations to Australia on steps it should take to ensure better compliance with its international legal obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Read MoreLegislation to establish a National Children’s Commissioner within the Australian Human Rights Commission has been introduced into Parliament by the Gillard Government. Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said the position would result in better outcomes for children.
Read MoreThe US State Department has highlighted violence against women and children, Indigenous disadvantage and the prolonged detention of asylum seekers as “principal problem areas” in Australia in its annual report on the state of human rights around the world.
Read MoreThe establishment of a National Children’s Commissioner will help to promote and protect the human rights of children and young people and ensure that the best interests of children are taken into account in the development of national law and policy. Welcoming the Attorney-General’s announcement that the Government will appoint a Children’s Commissioner to sit within the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Human Rights Law Centre said that the position will assist to safeguard the rights of children and young people who are vulnerable and disadvantaged.
Read MoreThe Victorian Government is set to develop a three year Action Plan to address the issue of violence against women and their children.
The plan, to be consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, will affirm that violence against women constitutes a violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms of women.
Read MoreThe Children's Rights and Business Principles, developed by UNICEF, the UN Global Compact and Save the Children, were launched on 12 March 2012.
The Principles seek to present a coherent vision for business, building on existing standards and initiatives, to maximise the positive impacts of business activity on children's rights, and eliminate negative impacts. They were developed through an extensive multi-stakeholder consultation process and are derived from internationally recognised children's rights. The first Principle outlines core actions to be taken by business, including policy commitments, due diligence and remediation. The remaining Principles provide guidance on the implementation of these core actions across all business activity.
Read MoreChildren will be empowered to complain about violations of their human rights to an international body after the adoption by the General Assembly on Monday of a new Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Read MoreThe UN Secretary-General has announced that the new Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child will open for signature on 28 February 2012. Any State that has signed, ratified or acceded to the Convention or either of the two existing Optional Protocols will be able to sign the new Optional Protocol, which will create an international complaints mechanism forbreaches of children’s rights.
Read MoreThe United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, has concluded her country visit to Australia.
Read MoreVictoria Police must take a new approach to handling confrontation with people in crisis, the Human Rights Law Centre has said, following today’s release of the findings of the coronial inquest into the 2008 police shooting of Melbourne teenager Tyler Cassidy.
Read MoreOn 15 December 2009, the Victorian Government passed new Regulations that declare the Adult Parole Board, the Youth Residential Board, and the Youth Parole Board (the Parole Boards) not to be "public authorities" for the purposes of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities (the Victorian Charter).
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