Greater oversight needed in places of detention: COVID-19 Committee told

The Human Rights Law Centre, along with an alliance of civil society and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and senior academics, have made a joint submission to the Senate Committee tasked with investigating the Federal Government's response to COVID-19.

The submission is informed by the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), an international treaty which aims to prevent mistreatment and promote humane conditions in places of detention by establishing systems for independent monitoring and inspection. The alliance calls for transparency in places of detention to ensure that solitary confinement, lockdowns, and other practices that could amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, are not being used as part of the response to COVID-19. The submission also calls for greater oversight of places of detention beyond the pandemic.

Read the Human Rights Law Centre’s submission to the Senate COVID-19 here.