Amnesty International Australia has made a submission on youth and immigration detention in Australia to the UN Subcommittee on Torture for its visit to inspect places of detention across Australia.
The submission outlines Amnesty’s concerns that Australia is failing to adequately monitor and prevent inhumane treatment of children, refugees and asylum seekers in detention.
First Nations people continue to die in custody, the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers continues to harm their physical and mental health, and there is harrowing evidence of abuse of children in youth detention.
The submission’s key recommendations include: raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14, advocating for the principle that no person should be detained in violation of their human rights, and bringing an end to the mandatory and indefinite detention of people waiting for their asylum claims to be assessed.
The UN Subcommittee on Torture is visiting Australia from 16 to 27 October 2022.
