Human Rights Situation in Australia
Australia
Despite steps taken by authorities to improve the human rights situation and the country's well-developed human rights institutional system, Australia has been increasingly criticized by international and national human rights institutions with delays in implementing their recommendations or even a failure of doing so.
A failure to respect the rights of Indigenous peoples is one of the country's recurring human rights issues. It is noteworthy that this population group is still not recognized in the country's Constitution and has no special legal protection. In case of violations of rights and freedoms, they can seek redress through law enforcement and courts. At the same time, legal aid centres have recorded numerous cases of biased and harsh treatment of Aboriginal people by authorities, medical personnel, and prison staff.
A failed constitutional referendum held on 14 October 2023 (more than 60 per cent voted "no") to establish an advisory body within the Australian parliament – the so-called "Indigenous Voice to Parliament" referred to in the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart. They have demonstrated not only the government's failure to address the entrenched problems of native Australians, but also the remnants of a colonial mindset in much of Australian society, about 90 per cent of which was formed by several "waves" of immigrants from Europe.
The results of the referendum were criticized by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The High Commissioner was "deeply disappointed at the missed opportunity to officially recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in Australia's Constitution and give them a greater voice alongside the country's Parliament."[1] The Special Rapporteurs of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) on the right to development and the rights of Indigenous Peoples have also previously urged support for this legislative initiative.[2]
Today, the indigenous population remains the poorest and most vulnerable part of Australia's society. Most of them live in remote and rural areas, which also affects their incomes and limits access to health and education services. Poor living standards not only fuel criminality, but also affect both physical and mental health of the indigenous population.
According to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a significant number of persons with disabilities expressing suicidal ideation, particularly within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, due to, inter alia, lack of support, poverty and isolation.[3]
Indigenous Australians have a life expectancy of 10 years less than non-Indigenous Australians. Inadequate housing is another cause of high rates of child removals from Aboriginal families in Australia.
Persons with disabilities, women and minors are the most vulnerable group in indigenous communities. In November 2019, the Committee on the Rights of the Child criticized the Australian government noting "that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children continue to be disproportionally affected by family and domestic violence, including sexual violence, both as victims and witnesses."[4]
Law enforcement officers continue to treat the indigenous population in a biased way. In December 2015, a 26-year-old Dunghutti man David Dungay died in his prison cell due to asphyxia. The prisoner was restrained by the guards after he had refused to follow their order to stop eating biscuits. A video footage shows that before fainting he screamed 12 times that he could not breathe. The coroner of the State[5] found that none of the guards shall be subjected to disciplinary measures, let alone criminal charge.[6]
The trial of police officer Zachary Rolfe, who shot dead 19‑year‑old Kumanjayi Walker from the Aboriginal community of Yuendumu in November 2019, was another high-profile case. The teenager had a criminal record and was wanted by the police; during his first attempted arrest, he had threatened officers with an axe; he had stabbed Rolfe in the shoulder with a pair of scissors before the officer shot him. Wounded Walker was brought to the police station where he received first aid. But the local hospital was closed, and the nearest city of Alice Springs is 300 km away. The boy died about an hour later. The incident sparked protests of the Aboriginal community demanding that those guilty of the death of their member be punished, thus, the murder charges were filed within a few days. Chief Minister of the Northern Territory Michael Gunner promised that "consequences would flow." In March 2022, the police officer was acquitted.[7]
In September 2019, Joyce Clarke was shot by a police officer as she walked down a street outside her home in Geraldton holding a kitchen knife in her hand. The woman had mental issues and had been released from hospital a few days before, after a suicide attempt. The police officers called by her relatives asking to help them take her to hospital confirm that the woman stood almost still and there were no sudden movements or threats on her part. The jury found the police officer who fired the shot not guilty.
The said incident also highlighted the persisting problem of prejudice towards the indigenous population on the part of medical staff (Joyce Clarke was released from hospital despite her clearly psychotic state). Other high-profile cases include the death of Naomi Williams, a six months' pregnant 27‑year‑old woman. The young woman went to a hospital 18 times suffering from nausea and pain, but did not receive proper treatment or a referral. She and her unborn child died of sepsis. The infection proved treatable by a course of antibiotics. Following an inquest (that took three years) the State coroner merely issued recommendations, leaving their implementation to the discretion of the hospital administration. Those guilty remained unpunished.[8]
The information provided by "The Guardian" reveals the true scope of the problem. With reference to the Australian Institute of Criminology and several other line agencies, "The Guardian" reports 500 indigenous deaths over the last 30 years (1991 – 2021) at police stations and in similar circumstances.[9]
In 2023, indigenous Australians (3.8 per cent of the country's population) accounted for almost 32 per cent of Australia's total prison population a quarter of all prison deaths. Legal assistance centres have documented numerous cases of biased and cruel treatment of Aborigines in penitentiary facilities.
June 2022 saw another storm of massive protests against abuse of firearms by the police against Aborigines in Sydney, Melbourne and other major Australian cities.
In November 2022, the country was shaken by a wave of rallies after a cruel assault on the grounds of racial hatred, which was committed in October 2022 in Perth and led to the death of Noongar-Yamatji teenager Cassius Turvey.
Many indigenous peoples live in remote and hard-to-reach areas, which severely limits their access to medical, educational, legal and other services and reduces their financial opportunities. So far, some progress has been made in education only. In other aspects, the gap remains, with the Aboriginal population still severely disadvantaged, in employment, mortality, and imprisonment rates.
In November 2017, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)[10] and the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the UN Human Rights Council[11] also noted the plight of indigenous people in Australia, including in terms of political participation, the lack of protection of their land rights, socio-economic discrimination, disproportionate rate of violence against indigenous women, as well as extremely high imprisonment rate among Aboriginal people, especially children (they are imprisoned far more often than the descendants of the immigrant population.)
In September 2022, the UN Human Rights Committee found that Australia had failed to adequately protect Torres Strait Islanders against "the effects of climate change." The Committee arrived at this conclusion upon examination of a complaint filed by representatives of eight Australian islands. The plaintiffs claimed that the state's failure to adequately protect their territories against extreme weather conditions had resulted in the indigenous peoples' inability to engage in farming, traditional crafts, and many ceremonies inherent in their culture. The Committee called on the Australian government to compensate the indigenous Islanders for the harm suffered and engage in meaningful consultations with communities to develop measures to secure their safe existence on the islands.[12]
Australian laws governing Aboriginal cultural heritage need to be reformed because mining companies still manage to find loopholes to obtain consent for the destruction of indigenous artefacts when conducting extractive activities. Causing destruction or alterations to Aboriginal territories is a crime under Australian law. Yet regulations may be more flexible at the State level. Thus, in Western Australia, consent by the Aboriginal Affairs Minister is enough to avoid criminal liability. Furthermore, most agreements between companies and tribal elders include a clause prohibiting the latter to seek advice from third parties, including in order to protect their cultural heritage, without prior consultation with company administration. Aboriginal people complain that in fact, all these contracts are signed only on conditions set forth by mining companies.[13]
In May 2017[14], experts of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) expressed concern over Australia's non-compliance with the principle of free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples while developing policies with regard to extractive activities on the lands traditionally used by them.
The Indigenous ancestral land of Murujuga in Western Australia, which is home to the world's oldest and largest collection of petroglyphs, is under threat of destruction by the country's biggest fossil fuel project, the Burrup Hub, owned by Woodside Energy. In this regard, protests erupted across the State in October 2023, which met a violent crackdown by the police. Some activists faced the strongest form of charges – some protesters can face up to 20 years in prison.[15]
A general increasing intolerance of the authorities toward protests, in particular the environmental ones, is on trend. Thus, in New South Wales and Victoria, where protesters have been fighting logging on Indigenous lands, the State governments introduced penalties (from fines to years in prison) in 2022 targeting people whose actions (such as blocking roads and ports) disrupt businesses and economic activity.
Similar measures were introduced in Tasmania, home to old-growth forests. Environmental activists now face fines of AU$13,000 or two years in prison.
In May 2023, the South Australian State government passed new laws increasing fines for obstructing a public place from AU$750 to AU$50,000 (increased of almost 67 times) and including possibility of three months in prison.
In order to smooth over the impression of the total failure of state policies in this field, the Australian government seeks to demonstrate its concern over and full involvement in the indigenous issue. That is why we witness a tolerant attitude towards ideas promoted by some civic associations to change the date of Australia Day, the flag and the anthem. All official events must now be opened with reference to "traditional owners of the land." In 2020, governments of States and the Coalition of Peaks comprising representatives of 55 Aboriginal organizations and associations signed an agreement on the renewed Closing the Gap Programme stipulating that governments of States are to establish their own mechanisms to engage with Aboriginal organizations. They should build on a new practice of framing decisions pertaining to the interests of Australia's First Nations as a document bearing a signature of a local Aboriginal community elder. However, since the recommendations are not binding, those who are to follow them approach them formally, rather than being result-oriented, and either ignore them altogether or delay their implementation as much as possible.
Despite the official policy of multiculturalism, racist and xenophobic sentiments are widespread in Australia. Increased incidents of racial discrimination and xenophobia in both everyday life and the public domain were reported by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in November 2017[16] and by the Human Rights Committee in October 2017.[17] Migrants, especially Arabs, Muslims, people of African descent, and people from indigenous communities are the most frequent targets of intolerance.
In September 2023, the report containing the findings of the HRC Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent on its visit to Australia (from 12 to 20 December 2022) was published. The experts stress the prevalence of racial discrimination – the delegation noted that, throughout Australia, people of African descent reported racial profiling, abuse of authority, over policing, targeting, and violence by the police. Although in some States, like Victoria, racial profiling is prohibited in policy, yet no monitoring exists in practice. There is information that pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers of African descent are more frequently subject to police stops that escalate to questioning, searches, threats of force.[18]
Children of African descent are subject to racial discrimination as well. Children reported to the delegation on experiences of bias and discrimination in schools, on public transport, and in other public spaces. In 2017, a study across two Australian States found 40 per cent of students reported experiencing racial discrimination.
Health facilities are no exception for racial discrimination. This is expressed as medical personnel's dismissive approach toward people of African descent, including mistrusting patients of African descent and underrating their complaints.
Experts also expressed concern about the rise of suicide among refugee of African descent, particularly among South Sudanese youth who faced a constant barrage of racialization and racial bias in everyday life.[19]
As the Palestinian-Israeli conflict escalated in the second half of 2023, incidents of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia increased dramatically. A total of 662 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded by the Executive Council of Australia Jewry between October and November 2023 alone, a 738 per cent increase on the number of incidents recorded in the previous year.[20] From 7 October to 6 November 2023, 133 Islamophobic incidents were reported. Before the escalation of the Middle East conflict, the average number of weekly incidents was 2.5. The executive director of Islamophobia Register Australia, Sharara Attai, said she believed the real number of Islamophobic incidents in the past month was "much higher" and that Islamophobia, and hate crimes in general, historically went under-reported.[21]
Canberra's tightening migration policy has been increasingly criticized by the human rights community. Thus, Australia refuses to grant asylum to irregular refugees and holds them indefinitely at detention centres, including on Nauru and earlier on Manus Island (Papua New Guinea) without adequate access to medical and legal services. The harsh conditions in such facilities, including inadequate mental health services, the serious safety issues and instances of violence, sexual abuse and self-harm, as well as the fact that the harsh conditions compel some asylum seekers to return to their countries of origin were pointed out by the Human Rights Committee.[22]
The lack of an adequate legal mechanism to regulate periods of detention in migration centres is a stumbling block in this area. The average period of detention is 620 days.[23] However, there are cases of waiting more than 11 years for an immigration decision.[24]
On 13 May 2021, Australian parliament endorsed amendments ruling out the possibility to expel foreigners who stay illegally in the country if they have applied for asylum. According to the government, the measure aims to ensure that the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees prohibiting forcible return of refugees to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened, is reflected in national legislation. This step was followed by a joint statement of 30 human rights entities. They pointed out that even the amended version of the law lacks provisions on the periods of detention of persons in migration centres and in fact authorizes indefinite detention.[25] According to the Australian Department of Home Affairs, as of December 2022, more than 872 irregular migrants were kept in Australian detention centres, including on the continent.[26]
In December 2019, Australian parliament took yet another "progressive" step by voting to repeal the Medevac Bill passed in March 2019 by the Labour majority, which permitted illegal migrants whose health required medical attention to enter Australia. About 200 people who managed to enter Australia this way are currently kept in national migration centres or detained in hotels.
The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (SPT) has also referred to the unsatisfactory state of the country's migration agenda. In October 2022, the Subcommittee delegation had to suspend its visit to Australia because of the obstacles it encountered in that country in carrying out its mandate under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Head of the SPT Delegation Aisha Shujune Muhammad reported lack of cooperation from the regional authorities of the States of Queensland and New South Wales. In February 2023, the delegation eventually paid a visit to the country with a follow-up report published in December 2023.[27]
In this documents the SPT experts point out that Australia's policy of mandatory immigration detention may have deleterious effects on the mental health of migrants and their eventual ability to assimilate into Australian society. As immigration detention centres are largely devoid of language and cultural education programmes, migrants are placed in situations of deprivation.
Migrants detained in immigration detention facilities do not have sufficient access to State-provided free legal aid. The Subcommittee highlights that lack of clarity on the duration of detention is likely to have adverse effects on migrants' physical and mental health, in particular for those who cannot be returned to their countries owing to risk of torture or irreparable harm. The same is true of stateless persons. The Subcommittee received frequent testimony during interviews that migrants were often transferred between facilities without prior notice or reason for their transfer. This is also a contributing factor in adverse health outcomes and has harmful effects on their ability to retain family ties.[28]
Human rights activists are deeply concerned over the future of the Migration Amendment (Removal and Other Measures) passed by the lower house of the Parliament of Australia on 26 March 2024;[29] it requires non-citizens to "cooperate with steps to arrange their lawful removal" and establishes penalties for those who fail to "cooperate". Non-compliance with removal pathway direction without a reasonable excuse is considered an offense and is penalized with obligatory imprisonment of one to five years, an AUD 93,900 fine or both.[30]
Furthermore, the bill also empowers the government to designate "removal concern countries". Such designation would imply a bar on visa applications from persons who are citizens of the countries that fail to accept those removed from Australia.
However, on 27 March 2024, the upper house failed to pass this controversial bill proposed by the Labour Party. The adoption was moved at least six months in order to subject it to further examination.[31]
Experts of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) believe that the best interests of the child are not duly prioritized in asylum, refugee and migration processes. They also criticize Australia for taking no steps to establish an independent guardianship body for unaccompanied children and is not currently considering prohibiting the detention of children in all circumstances. Furthermore, neither the Migration Act nor the Maritime Powers Act prohibits the return of vessels carrying children who may be in need of international assistance.[32]
In April 2022, the Western Australia Court of Appeal heard the statements of six Indonesians who were sentenced to prison in 2009 for smuggling people by sea. Under Australian law, the then minors were to be deported to Indonesia, but law enforcement officers disregarded their oral testimonies and put down their dates of birth based on the medical evaluation. They relied on wrist X‑ray evidence to determine that they were of age, despite the world scientific community's scepticism about this method. The court of appeal found that a miscarriage of justice had occurred in 2009 and ruled that the earlier decisions be reversed. Yet the issue of compensation as well as that of the systemic nature of this sort of "errors" remain unresolved.[33]
Australian penitentiary system has also been severely criticized. The SPT experts describe the situation in this area in grave terms. During the abovementioned visit to Australia, the Subcommittee registered numerous violations in places of deprivation of liberty: arbitrary use of restraints, such as belt tethers, shackles, electrical discharge weapons and chemical agents. The experts cite an example of inhuman punishment of a detainee involving the use of a capsaicin-based chemical agent (capsaicin being an alkaloid contained in chili peppers and causing a sensation of burning).
In addition, due to overcrowding persons deprived of their liberty are placed in high-observation cells, in some instances with 24-hour lighting. The Subcommittee also expressed its concern over the systematic understaffing observed in the penitentiary, juvenile detention and immigration detention systems across the country's territory.
The Subcommittee's delegation observed poor conditions of detention in most of prisons. This was especially true of juvenile detention centres. In Banksia Hill Detention Centre, the Subcommittee observed a number of cells with insalubrious conditions: the cells were small, had no windows and proper beds, instead of which thin mattresses were put on the floor. Furthermore, the cells had no running water. Children were left alone in their cells for up to 23 hours per day without either time outside or any recreation.
Penitentiary facilities failed to observe the principle of proper gender separation. The Subcommittee witnessed the placement of women's sections within men's prisons, and received reports regarding the housing of boys in girls' sections of juvenile detention centres.[34]
As for foreigners legally residing in the country, including that of Russian origin, Australian competent authorities have usually treated them, until recently, impartially. Violations of the rights of Russian citizens and compatriots living abroad have mainly occurred due to persistent deficiencies in the law enforcement system.
However, the situation of Russian citizens and compatriots living in the country was affected by the hysteria brought on by Australian authorities and the Ukrainian diaspora (including the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations) due to the Special Military Operation launched by the Russian Federation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine and protect the civilians of Donbass.
The country's major media (first and foremost the ABC broadcasting corporation) issue anti-Russian content on a regular basis. Expressing any alternative views has become virtually impossible. In March 2022 while live on air, Stan Grant, the host of a popular Q+A talk show expelled a young audience of Russian descent from the studio for his attempt to voice an opinion in support of Russia's actions.
In March 2023, "SBS Russian"[35], a Russian branch of Australian public broadcaster SBS, issued an article about a Russian young man called Ruslan, whose application to Deakin University, one of the country's leading universities, was rejected. The University cited as a reason the discriminatory decision it adopted in March 2022 to cease cooperation with new students from Russia (including those with a residence permit in Australia) and foreign citizens residing in the territory of Russia.
In October 2023, Minister for Tourism and Multicultural Affairs of South Australia Zoe Bettison cancelled the Kalinka Russian Ensemble composed of local children and young people of Russian heritage from the line-up of an annual Multicultural Festival in Adelaide in November. The Minister was open about the "difficult" but "necessary" decision, which was made at the request of the Ukrainian community out of respect for Ukrainian refugees who would also be in attendance.
The Russian Embassy in Australia published a statement in its social media demanding to stop discrimination against Russians in South Australia reminding Canberra of its obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The statement notes that the ideology of ethnic hatred which forms the essence of the Kiev regime is imposed in Australia with the connivance of the Australian authorities.
For two consecutive years the Australia Day Council of South Australia has banned the members of the Russian Cultural Centre and the athletes of the local sambo federation from taking part in the traditional 26 January parade. In 2024, the notice of the ban was sent only four days before the event.
At the national level, Australia keeps a blind eye on Kiev's regime relying on neo-Nazi groups. None of them are considered extremist.
A federal law penalizing intentional public demonstration of Nazi symbols and sale of related attributes, and supplementing such legislation enacted by a number of states entered into force only in January 2024. The same month, one of neo-Nazi groups held a parade on the occasion of the Australia Day in Sydney.[36]
In June 2023, the media reported Danielle Elizabeth Auctions from Gold Coast, Queensland, organizing an online auction of Nazi artefacts.[37] The buyers of portraits of Adolph Hitler, anti-Semitic posters and photographs of executions included Australian politicians and MPs.
Human rights defenders have also pointed to certain aspects of the counter‑terrorism activities conducted by Australian special services. In particular, they are entitled to detain individuals suspected of terrorist activity for more than 48 hours without charge, conduct surveillance on individuals, and access bank account information, electronic and text messages, computer and telephone devices of citizens without court order.
The Telecommunications Amendment Act became effective in 2015 and obliges telecommunications companies to keep metadata on the Australians' phone calls and electronic messages for two years. Besides, in December 2018, a law requiring cryptographically encrypted electronic messaging services to provide information about the correspondence of terrorist suspects to security authorities was enacted.
The Espionage and Foreign Interference Act and the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act enacted in December 2018 criminalize obtaining and dissemination of classified information and compel foreign State related individuals and entities to submit information on their activities whenever required by the competent authorities. According to human rights activists, all these powers can be used for uncontrolled and unfounded interference with the citizens' privacy. The HRCttee has noted that there is a risk that such emergency measures could over time become the norm rather than the exception.[38]
In 2019, the CRC recommended that Australian authorities revoke the December 2015 amendments to the Citizenship Act that allowed for children under 18 years of age to lose their Australian citizenship if they engaged in or were convicted of certain foreign fighting or terrorism-related conduct.[39]
The international human rights community has been criticizing the persisting impunity of law enforcement officers that abuse their power. The HRCttee has pointed out, in particular, that the existing close relationship between the police investigations and the coroners' investigations may compromise the independence of investigations.[40]
In September 2021, the Surveillance Legislation Amendment Act was passed to expand surveillance powers of Australian special services to conduct surveillance as part of operational and investigative activities. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Criminal Intelligence Commission have been given the power to disrupt and delete data on the Internet to prevent offence, to track down online activities by criminal organizations and establish control over accounts without consent of account holders for the purpose of collecting evidence of criminal activity.[41]
People with disabilities also face challenges in Australia. They cannot fully exercise their electoral rights, the rights to health, education, family life, etc. The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) highlights the segregated[42] (i.e. limited) education experienced by children with disabilities as well as insufficient funding for inclusive education in mainstream schools. It points to the lack of access to early intervention mechanisms for children with disabilities, the widespread practice of retaining and restraining them in adult settings. Besides, parents with disabilities are more likely than other parents to have their child removed from their care, often on the basis of disability. There are challenges related to providing affordable and accessible housing and information and communication technologies.[43]
The National Disability Insurance Scheme is being criticized, as it still relies heavily on the medical model of disability and does not provide older persons with disabilities, persons with disabilities from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and other categories of people with equal opportunities. Moreover, such factors as complex procedures, limited publicly available and accessible information on the system and the lack of services in remote areas of the country reduce its accessibility.[44]
Shocking cases of ill-treatment of aged people regularly come into the media spotlight. In October 2022, "The Guardian" reported that the Older Persons Advocacy Network (Opan) audited 27,000 calls made by aged care residents and their families to aged care advocates in previous years and involving neglect, lack of medical assistance and even abuse by the staff.[45] In May 2023, Australian society was outraged by the story of 95-year-old Clare Nowland. A police officer who was called to an aged care home in Cooma, New South Wales discharged a taser at the woman with dementia, which caused her death a few days later.[46]
Human rights monitoring mechanisms are concerned over the practice of involuntary non-therapeutic sterilization of women and girls with intellectual disabilities and/or cognitive impairments, despite the fact that in its July 2013 report, the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs recommended limiting this practice and strengthening the safeguards against abuse. The United Nations HRCttee,[47] the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in July 2018[48], and the CRC[49] have highlighted this issue. In October 2019, the CRPD also took note of the reports of forced sterilization, forced abortion and forced contraception among persons with disabilities. Besides, experts were concerned about the cases of obliging persons with cognitive and mental impairment to undergo treatment, including through indefinite detention in psychiatric centres, as well as the use of psychotropic medications, physical restraints and seclusion under the guise of behaviour modification against persons with disabilities, including children.[50]
Despite the government's proclaimed commitment to the principle of gender equality, the Australian constitution lacks appropriate safeguards and the prohibition of discrimination against women. The practice of subjecting women to forced marriage and female genital mutilation persists in the country to this day. At the same time, as the CEDAW notes in its concluding observations, there is no systematic data collection on the number of women who have faced these challenges.[51]
The situation with the rights of the child has also degraded considerably in Australia. The issues in this area include the persistently high number of minors in alternative care, with remarkably high though traditional overrepresentation of Indigenous minors. Experts also noted the limited access to mental health and therapeutic services for children in such facilities.
Another aspect is related to the high rate of violence against minors both in the home and in specialized institutions. The CRC had previously criticized the fact that the National Redress Scheme, which was set up for people who have experienced institutional child sexual abuse, only covers citizens and permanent residents of Australia. It excludes persons sentenced to five years of imprisonment or longer and children who were under eight years of age in 2018.[52]
In June 2022, the ABC news agency published results of a journalistic investigation into the government childcare system. Based on the evidence of more than 700 persons, 222 of whom were child protection workers, the investigation concludes that there have been numerous instances of abuse and violence, systematic manipulation of statistics about children in care and discrimination based on race. It also includes evidence of negligence on the part of the childcare staff. Besides, child protection services tend to disregard welfare measures for struggling families and prefer to remove the child right away.[53]
The government in Canberra continues to shift responsibility to the governments of states and territories and disregard the repeated recommendations by the HRCttee[54] and the CRC[55] as well as the calls made during the third cycle of the Universal Periodic Review by the UN HRC[56] to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility for minors (currently the minimum age of criminal responsibility is as low as 10 years).
Year after year, the government keeps promising to address this issue. However, the minimum age of criminal responsibility has only been raised in the Northern Territory (November 2022) and the Australian Capital Territory (November 2023), and only to 12 years. The state of Tasmania's currently considering establishing the minimum age of criminal responsibility of 14 years with subsequent increase to 16 years by 2029.
Among the minors prosecuted under the court judgment, there is a disproportionately high share of persons with disabilities, Aboriginal people and those who belong to both categories at once.[57] According to the CRC, children in detention are frequently subjected to verbal abuse, including of a racist nature. Moreover, they often are subjected to cruel and degrading treatment: they are deliberately denied access to water, restrained in ways that are potentially dangerous and many are subjected to isolation.[58]
Human rights defenders sound the alarm in regard to the policy of the state of Queensland on under-age offenders. Queensland is the only Australian state without the upper house of the Parliament, which leads to poorer judicial oversight of the legislation, especially when a political party has the majority in the lower house.
In 2023 alone two very controversial laws were adopted, contradicting the state's law "On Human Rights". In particular, there's a law enshrining criminal responsibility for children who broke bail. As of September 2023, 112 children (out of 169, which is 66 per cent of their total number) arrested on these new charges were indigenous.[59] This yet again proves that it is Australian indigenous children that suffer negative consequences of the adopted laws the most.
The state also adopted amendments allowing to indefinitely keep children in temporary detention facilities (police watch houses) that are cynically called "houses". The government of the state of Queensland even had to suspend the state's law "On human rights" (23 August 2023) to introduce the amendments.[60] What is even more revealing is that these urgent amendments were introduced after Solicitor-General of the state published the facts of illegal detention of minors in such institutions.[61]
At the same time, conditions in the cells in these institutions are highly unsatisfactory. In majority of cases they are small rooms without windows and even a place to sleep, which, as stated previously, sometimes means a thin mattress on the concrete floor.[62]
Currently, the situation with conditions for children in detention facilities, including those in temporary detention facilities, "came to a head." In early 2024 a senior psychologist from the temporary detention facility (or, as they call it, the police watch house) in the city of Cairns, Queensland, sent a letter to senior officials with a call to pay due attention to the problem. The letter contained detailed descriptions of horrendous conditions and human rights abuses in the facilities laid out by the psychologist. For example, she highlighted that the young people are not being provided medical attention or legal support. She was especially concerned by lack of adequate food[63], which additionally suggests the idea that the young people in these "houses" may even go hungry.
A wide response among the international community was provoked by the reported cases of sexual abuse committed by the Australian Catholic priests against children and teenagers that, in majority of cases, were covered up by top religious officials. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2013‑2017) found that a horrendous number of victims were subject to sexual abuse by the members of the Australian Catholic Church. At the very least, 4,445 complaints of abuse in the Catholic circles were registered. Thus, some 7 per cent of Catholic priests were alleged offenders, with offending occurring at a constant rate from the 1950s to the 1980s.[64]
Only in 2018 did the national government apologize. Since March 2022, all church institutions were obliged to join the National Redress Scheme to fight abuse and violence against children and to donate to the relevant fund.
At the same time, members of the Catholic Church made attempts to close more than a dozen criminal cases of sexual abuse referring to the fact that it is impossible to provide a just hearing of the cases because the accused priests died or were deprived of legal capacity.[65] However, such attempts were not successful because in October 2023 the Supreme Court rejected the arguments and ruled in favour of the victim.[66]
Instead of paying due attention to the deteriorating situation with the rights of children, Anthony Albanese's Labour government, which came to power in May 2022, focuses their efforts on imposing values, that are non-traditional for the Australian society, and alien "gender" agenda that became unprecedentedly aggressive and literally reached the state's level.
It is minors who are especially exposed to this propaganda. Australia permits children to change their gender. A particular concern is caused by easy access to the "procedure" of changing the gender. A teenager experiencing the so-called "gender dysphoria" has the right to go to the court, even without the consent of their parents but with the support of a teacher, a psychologist or the headmaster of their educational institution. The court may recognize the applicant (even under the age of fourteen) a "legally capable minor" if the court supposes that they fully understand the situation and are aware about their actions (the so-called "Gillick competence"[67]).
By keeping silent about the stories of victims of sex reassignment surgeries, the media and numerous specialized sources on the Internet present teenager's drive for "self-identification" and the use of hormonal drugs that suppress sexual development as something positive.
Meanwhile, the world learned about the case of Jay Langadinos from Australia who was subject to mastectomy, hysterectomy and ovariectomy to transition from female to male because of "gender dysphoria"[68] she was diagnosed with when she was 19. The consequences of the surgeries cause moral and physical sufferings to Jay Langadinos who no longer considers herself a man.
Yet, all alternative points of view on the issue are suppressed. The scale and severity of the problem become evident in light of the fact that in April 2022 Liberal candidate for the federal parliamentary seat of Warringah (Sydney) Katherine Deves was subject to bullying from trans activists for comments against participation of trans people in female sporting events and doubts that "gender dysphoria" is reasonably diagnosed among teenagers, which leads to children being "surgically mutilated and sterilized." Because of unprecedented pressure put on her, Katherine Deves had to apologize and suspend her election campaign.
During the pandemic Australia singled itself out through introducing the strictest anti‑COVID measures in the world. Thus, since March 2020 until November 2021 Australian citizens, with few exceptions, were banned to leave and enter the country, because of which, at the will of the government, about 43 thousand Australians were "stuck" abroad for several months.
After India saw a spike in the number of COVID cases in May 2021, the Australian authorities introduced a ban for their citizens who were there at the time to return to the country (around 9 thousand people, 600 of whom are classed as vulnerable) based on the 2015 Biosecurity Act. The punishment for violating the ban included an AUD 66 thousand fine (about USD 55 thousand) or five years in prison. The decision ignited outrage among Australians of Indian origin who interpreted it as manifestations of racism and degrading treatment.[69] It is noteworthy that similar measures were not introduced by Canberra during similar outbreaks in Great Britain and the US in 2020.
The state of Western Australia was closed to people from other regions of the country and foreign countries for two years, with short breaks, since March 2020 until March 2022. Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria, set an anti-record in total duration of the lockdown (262 days).
The Victoria Police report on the realization of anti-COVID measures published in late June 2023 revealed that people of African or Middle Eastern appearance got four times as many COVID fines for breaking public health rules as their share of the state's population.[70]
Experts describe the situation with free speech in the country as "fragile." In 2023, in the NGO "Reporters Without Borders" World Press Freedom Index, Australia was ranked 27 with 78.24 points. Certain doubts about editorial independence of a number of the media are fuelled by the fact that executives of major media companies maintain close ties with political leaders. As a result, there is difference in interpretation of the same events and facts for political purposes. Despite the fact that cases of violence against journalists and their arbitrary arrests are rare, the situation with safety of journalists in the country cannot be described as favourable. In the research conducted in 2021 almost 90 per cent of the journalists expressed concerns regarding growth in threats, oppression and intimidation, including from the government.[71]
Searches conducted by the AFP in June 2019 in the house of the political editor of News Corp newspapers and in the head office of a major TV and Radio corporation ABC, where materials on war crimes committed by the Australian soldiers in Afghanistan were retrieved, are a vivid example of the authorities putting pressure on the media. The Federal Court of Australia subsequently dismissed the company's suit filed against the AFP regarding the lawfulness of the actions by law enforcement officers.[72]
The crimes committed by Australian soldiers with the connivance of the high command remain a sensitive topic for the local community. In June 2023 a top-profile suit between Ben Roberts-Smith, a special operation forces veteran and participant of the military action in Afghanistan, and Fairfax Media ("The Canberra Times", "The Sydney Morning Herald", "The Age"), which had been taking place since 2019, ended in June 2023. The "defamation" case brought by the former soldier against journalists was dismissed. The publications characterizing Ben Roberts-Smith as a war criminal guilty in shooting dead unarmed Afghans and mocking the victims (for example, he used the prosthetic leg of the killed disabled man that had been taken by the soldiers as a "trophy" as a kind of a beer mug) were found to be accurate by the Federal Court.
Back in 2020, the Brereton Report prepared by the Australian Defence Ministry stated that 25 Australian soldiers in Afghanistan (mostly on 2012‑2013) murdered at least 39 civilians and prisoners and revealed the cult of violence and connivance in the special forces, which the command had been lenient with for many years. However, the names of the criminals and many other circumstances were not mentioned in the published version of the report. Now the public knows at least on name (Ben Roberts-Smith) because he is "the most awarded Australian soldier ever" (for example, he was awarded with Victoria Cross, the highest award in Australia). Moreover, while already being the subject of revealing publications in the media and the Brereton Report, the retired soldier was invited by the British royal family to the funeral of Elizabeth II.
Even after the court's judgment, it is unlikely that the war criminal will be brought to justice. This will require a new – criminal – proceeding to be opened. Its outcome will not be predetermined because of stricter requirements for the evidence of guilt.
At the same time, Ben Roberts-Smith is a suspect in a closed criminal investigation initiated by the government on the basis of the Brereton Report. Only one person (Oliver Schulz) out of 25 mentioned in the report faced charges. In February 2023, during the budgetary hearings in the Australian Parliament's Senate, the representatives of the investigative bodies promised to present preliminary conclusions on criminal episodes 40‑50 "by the middle of the year." The promise, which has not been fulfilled up until now, was accompanied by complaints that it is difficult to collect the materials "on site" up to a point that the witness testimonies of Afghans obtained in the on-line format are of "dubious legal force." It is clear that the authorities want to let the case slide.
There is also no progress in terms of paying compensation to the victims of war crimes committed by Australians, as well as their families (this was a recommendation of Brereton). Local human rights organizations and David Shoebridge, Senator from the Australian Greens, pay special attention to this circumstance.
Realizing it is hopeless to investigate the involvement of the Australian Armed Forces command in war crimes in Afghanistan, in June 2023 Jacqui Lambie, an independent senator from Tasmania, had to take this story to the International Criminal Court[73], despite the tarnished reputation of this body in the eyes of the international community.
