In response to the joint investigation by The Guardian and SBS The Feed exposing violent assaults and deprivation of human rights of children detained in adult watchhouses in Queensland, Amnesty International Indigenous Rights campaigner Kacey Teerman says;
“By continuing to detain children in adult watchhouses where they are subject to torturous conditions and brutal assaults, the Queensland Labor government is knowingly perpetrating child abuse on an industrial scale.”
“Queensland Labor knows that detained children in their care suffer extraordinary human rights violations. Last year, the government suspended the state’s Human Rights Act so that it could continue to perpetrate human rights abuses against these kids, who are overwhelmingly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.”
“In the coming days we’ll probably hear Premier Stephen Miles and Minister Mark Ryan line up to say how they’re shocked by the footage of kids being brutalised in watchhouses. How can they even pretend to be shocked? They created this system of child abuse and continue to defend it.”
Amnesty International has repeatedly called for the Queensland government to abolish their policy of detaining children in watchhouses, noting that the Queensland Police Service’s own operation manual says children should not be held in a watch house overnight. Queensland magistrates have made it clear in the past that children in watchhhouses are exposed to adult detainees who are often drunk, abusive, experiencing psychosis or suicidal.
In response to the revelations that many of the children seen to be assaulted by police officers have intellectual disabilities, Kacey Teerman says;
“The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability published an entire chapter of its report detailing the extent that the criminal justice system criminalises and then brutalises children with disability, describing it as a national crisis.”
“First Nations kids with a disability are some of the most vulnerable members of our society. These kids need support from the NDIA and they need supported care in community. If the Queensland government actually looked at research and evidence on how best to help kids at risk of being criminalised, they’d know that these young people can thrive and flourish when supported through diversionary programmes and appropriate supports.”
Amnesty International is set to engage in the upcoming Queensland election, campaigning for all political parties to end the practice of incarcerating children and to raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least fourteen. The protection of childrens’ human rights and the prevention of human rights abuses overwhelmingly suffered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children is a core focus of the Australian chapter of the global human rights organisation.
