Human rights advocates lodge United Nations complaint over Northern Territory’s youth justice policies

Human rights lawyers and Indigenous leaders have lodged a complaint to the United Nations calling for a review into the state of the Northern Territory’s “discriminatory” and “regressive” youth justice system. Find out why.

Protesters gather outside the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in 2022. Picture: (A) manda Parkinson

Human rights lawyers and Indigenous leaders have lodged an “urgent” complaint to the United Nations, calling for a review into the Northern Territory’s “discriminatory” and “regressive” youth justice policies.

The complaint, which was targeted at federal, state and territory governments, argued there was a “significant and persistent pattern of racial discrimination against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children evidenced by harsh and punitive laws”.

It is understood the complaint was submitted by Associate Professor Hannah McGlade and Professor Megan Davis, with the support of the east-coast-based Human Rights Law Centre, to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Tuesday.

Dr Hannah McGlade at her Perth home in June 21, 2021. Picture: Tony McDonough

It was also supported by the National Children’s Commissioner, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, the Australian Human Rights Commission and National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services.

The complaint argued the NT government’s “tough-on-crime” legislation, including new bail reforms and lowering the age of criminal responsibility, were “rushed through parliament” despite warnings from advocacy groups.

It also criticised the government’s decision to relocate children detained in Alice Springs to Darwin, arguing the move was an example of “segregation” and “exclusion from culture”.

“Previously incarcerated Indigenous children … told the Royal Commission … they experienced a lack of cultural connection and cultural safety”, the report stated.

Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro, who came to power off the back of a number of promised ‘tough-on-crime’ policies, in NT Parliament on March 27, 2025. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“This is a clear breach of international human rights law, including the right to freedom of expression in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the right to language in Article 13 of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

The reintroduction of spit hoods in October last year was also condemned in the complaint.

In 2023-24, Indigenous children in the NT were incarcerated at the highest average daily rates: 48.4 Indigenous children out of 10,000 Indigenous children.

Australia spent more than $1 billion incarcerating children during this same period, according to the Productivity Commission.

In October last year, the NT’s children commissioner reported that 94 per cent of children in detention in the Territory were Indigenous.

Originally published as Human rights advocates lodge United Nations complaint over Northern Territory’s youth justice policies