<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/17/human-rights-report-lashes-australias-diabolical-asylum-seeker-treatment-and-appalling-youth-laws>
"Australia’s “diabolical” treatment of asylum seekers and youth crime has
worsened, a global human rights advocacy body has warned, urging voters to push
back on leaders politicising the issue for gain.
Human Rights Watch’s latest world report has lashed Australia for going
backwards on children in the criminal justice system in 2024, referencing the
Northern Territory’s decision to reintroduce spit hoods for youth detainees and
the continued use of watch houses to detain children in Queensland.
Last year a
Guardian Australia investigation revealed confronting footage of
children in Queensland watch houses, locked in “freezing” isolation cells,
becoming panicked and struggling to breathe.
In December, the new Queensland government passed “adult crime, adult time”
laws, dramatically increasing maximum sentences for child offenders. The
government concedes the laws are contrary to international and state human
rights law, are discriminatory against young people and will “have a greater
impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children”.
The state’s premier, David Crisafulli, this week vowed to make “many more”
changes to strengthen the state’s hardline youth justice laws.
HRW, a global body which provides country-level reports for more than 100
countries, described Australia as a “vibrant democracy … marred by some key
human rights concerns”.
But the organisation’s Australia director, Daniela Gavshon, told
Guardian
Australia those concerns were heightened last year and that changes in the
youth justice system were “appalling” and a “complete flagrant disregard of
international standards”.
“[Children as young as 10 years old] don’t have the maturity and capacity for
abstract reasoning and to really comprehend the consequences of their actions,”
she said.
“There’s nothing to stop governments making non-criminal, child-friendly,
multi-disciplinary interventions that can be a response to unlawful behaviour.”
The report also condemns the treatment of asylum seekers transferred to
detention facilities on Nauru – many of whom have had their phones confiscated
– noting that Australia “continues to evade its international obligations”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
