‘In crisis’: UN experts condemn youth justice systems, Queensland laws

Two international human rights experts have described a state of “crisis” in Australia’s youth justice systems, as the Queensland parliament prepares to pass the second round of the LNP government’s contentious ‘adult crime, adult time’ laws.

Alice Jill Edwards, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture and other forms of degrading and inhuman treatment, and Albert K. Barume, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples, turned their attention to Australia after a confidential submission raised allegations that children’s rights were being violated.

Edwards said their investigations showed “the various criminal legal systems operating in Australia appear to be in crisis nationwide”, with a disproportionate number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children incarcerated across states and territories.

Alice Jill Edwards, the UN’s special rapporteur on torture, and Albert K Barume, the special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples.Credit: Cordula Treml/OHCHR

“Children are suffering undue harm to their safety and well-being, as well as to their educational and life prospects as a result of shortsighted approaches to youth criminality and detention,” Edwards said.

In an open letter to Australian authorities, the UN experts made specific mention of the Crisafulli government’s Making Queensland Safer (Adult Crime, Adult Time) Act – not the first time the LNP has been criticised by the UN – which they said was “incompatible with basic child rights”.

The first suite of the laws were introduced in December last year, followed by a second tranche covering 20 more offences that is due to pass parliament this week.

“We are very concerned about adult penalties being imposed on child offenders,” Edwards said.

“The information we have [about Queensland’s laws] is that it prohibits courts from considering the principle of detention as a last resort, and the preferability of noncustodial orders when sentencing children.

“Both principles are our standard principles of international law for all offenders. The fact that they are removing them from children is deeply problematic, and it’s a direct violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

Edwards suggested the tougher penalties were “masking decades-long failures of the Queensland government”, and instead passing the consequences “directly on to children”.

“Comprehensive strategies need to be undertaken in relation to child development and child rights,” she said.

“Criminal legal aspects are an important part of that, but they’re only one part.

“They can’t hold the whole weight of other societal, family, socioeconomic and educational failures … or intergenerational trauma [which is] especially relevant to Indigenous children.”

Queensland’s latest planned crackdown was referred to a parliamentary committee, and an expert legal panel, for further consideration.

In its report on Friday, the committee acknowledged that the bill, if passed, would likely disproportionately impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and was incompatible with the Human Rights Act 2019.

While Labor issued a statement of reservation, and Greens MP Michael Berkman gave a dissenting report, the LNP used its numbers on the committee to recommend the bill be passed by parliament.

Despite calls from stakeholders for the release of the advice of the expert legal panel, the youth justice department recommended it remain “cabinet-in-confidence”.

Edwards said “human rights law also relies on goodwill”.

“It requires a society to have internalised the value of those human rights. It requires a society to understand that human rights is what makes us a decent and … humane society.

“Discarding them indicates to me that the value of them has been misunderstood.”

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