Amnesty International Australia today launches its new Kids Need Better campaign, calling on Australian governments to establish enforceable national minimum standards of treatment for all children in custody, ensuring their human rights are protected.
Over 1,000 people have registered to attend an online event this evening to launch the Kids Need Better campaign with speakers Anne Hollonds, former National Children’s Commissioner, Satara Uthayakumaran, writer, advocate, and Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations, and Kacey Teerman, Amnesty International Australia’s Indigenous Rights Campaigner.
The campaign launches amid ongoing failures to reform Indigenous youth justice, with children as young as 10 continuing to be locked up across Australia, often in conditions that breach their basic human rights.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children remain systematically over-incarcerated and continue to face treatment that amounts to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
Over the next four years, Amnesty International Australia will advocate for systemic reform that addresses the root causes of youth incarceration and ensures children are protected from human rights abuse, and are treated with dignity, care and respect.
“The need for change has never been greater. Kids need better.
Kacey Teerman, Amnesty International Australia’s Indigenous Rights Campaigner
“We all want the best for children and every child’s human rights must be respected. Yet every day, children as young as 10 are locked in Australian prison cells, where they are subjected to abuse, restraint and isolation”, said Kacey Teerman, Amnesty International Australia’s Indigenous Rights Campaigner.
“The need for change has never been greater. Kids need better.
“Australia is falling behind other countries, as the international community has repeatedly condemned the failures of its youth justice system and the disproportionate harm it inflicts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
“Other countries, such as Scotland, have adopted holistic approaches to youth justice that focus on preventing children and young people from entering the criminal justice system in the first place. It’s time for Australia to follow suit.”
“Other countries, such as Scotland, have adopted holistic approaches to youth justice that focus on preventing children and young people from entering the criminal justice system in the first place. It’s time for Australia to follow suit.”
Kacey Teerman
Australians agree that kids need better. New research commissioned by Amnesty International Australia found that 91% of Australians agree that police and prison staff should abide by minimum standards for the treatment of children in custody, while 88% agree that children’s human rights must always be respected and that abuse in custody is never acceptable.
The research also found that 68% of Australians agree that community-led solutions connecting Indigenous youth to Country and culture foster a strong sense of belonging, social connection and meaning in life.
The Kids Need Better campaign calls on all Australian state and territory governments to:
- Establish enforceable national minimum standards of treatment for all children in custody that uphold and protect children’s human rights in line with international law, including CRC, ICCPR, CAT and UNDRIP.
- Raise the minimum age a child can be imprisoned to 14 years old across Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory.
- Provide sustained investment in evidence-based, community-led programs that reconnect First Nations children with Country, culture and community.
- End harmful, torturous practices, including solitary confinement, spit hoods and holding children in adult watch houses.
“It’s wrong that children as young as 10 years old, many of whom are still losing their baby teeth, and whose brains aren’t fully developed, can be imprisoned.
“Every child deserves safety, dignity and the opportunity to thrive. Instead of receiving the support they need, too many young people are locked away, abused and isolated from their families, communities and culture.
“The best way to create safer communities is to address the root causes of kids in detention, by ensuring children’s basic needs are met and investing in proven Indigenous-led, community-based solutions.”
Background
Repeated findings that children are being detained in harmful conditions, including in police watch houses and adult facilities, demonstrate the systemic failures that allow Australia to continue failing children and communities across the country.
Australia is bound by multiple international human rights treaties that govern the treatment of children, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture.
These treaties require that detention be used only as a last resort, prohibit cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and mandate special protection for children.
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