UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Report on Australia (2019)
What was at stake
International review of Australia's youth justice
What happened
Australia's fifth and sixth periodic reports were reviewed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2019. The review examined conditions facing children in Australia's youth justice system, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were found to be incarcerated at approximately 26 times the rate of non-Indigenous children. Children as young as 10 were subject to criminal prosecution under Australia's minimum age of criminal responsibility. Children were held in solitary confinement and, in some jurisdictions, detained in adult correctional facilities. The Committee also examined conditions for children in immigration detention.
What the court decided
Committee found Australia in violation of CRC due to age of criminal responsibility (10), Aboriginal overrepresentation (26x), use of solitary confinement, and children in adult facilities.
Statutes and cases cited
- § Convention on the Rights of the Child
- § Convention on the Rights of the Child art. 37
- § Convention on the Rights of the Child art. 40
Categories
Authoritative link
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