Child Rights

The children's rights issue In Depth

Everything you need to know

Children’s rights, our future

Protecting the human rights of children is to invest in the future.

Children have a right to life, dignity and health; identity; equality and non-discrimination; a safe place to live; protection from harm; participation (including the right to be heard); bodily integrity; protection from armed violence; justice and liberty; privacy; minority and Indigenous rights; education; play; freedom of thought; and voice and peaceful protest.

These rights are guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and additionally under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children must be able to depend on the adult world to look after them, to defend their rights and to help them develop and realise their potential.

Governments are obliged to protect all the rights of the child – economic, social and cultural rights as well as civil and political. They should uphold them but all across the world they are violated.

Amnesty campaigns to ensure children’s rights are a priority for governments across the world.

Indigenous youth justice in Australia

Australia is currently locking up children as young as 10 — far younger than the rest of the world — and Indigenous children are the worst affected. It’s not fair and it’s not right.

There is overwhelming evidence of the harm prison does to children – from health experts, social workers, Indigenous leaders, legal experts and human rights organisations. 

In 2012 the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) said that Australia’s juvenile justice system required substantial reform before it would meet international standards, noting, for example, that children in Australia are held criminally responsible from the age of 10, two years younger than the CRC’s internationally acceptable minimum.

To close the justice gap, the Australian Government must work with the states and territories and Indigenous organisations to reduce the number of Indigenous kids in detention. This is our main campaign aim.

Raise the age

Australia locks up vulnerable children as young as 10, taking away childhoods and causing serious harm at a crucial time of development, when they are being shaped into the adults they will become. This disproportionately impacts First Nations youth. 

It’s inexcusable that Indigenous children make up just 6% of the Australian population of children aged between 10 and 17 years, but approximately 60% of the youth prison population.

Our vision is to work with Indigenous communities to directly challenge the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in prison, by raising the age of criminal responsibility. We want to put an end to children falling into the quicksand of Australia’s prison system.

We are far behind most of the world in the way we treat our children. The United Nations has repeatedly criticised Australia for its minimum age of criminal responsibility. Amnesty is campaigning for the Australian government to meet its obligations under international law by raising the age from 10 to at least 14

There are proven alternatives to putting kids behind bars. Well-resourced, Indigenous-led diversion and prevention programs address the underlying causes of crime. By working on the causes – including racism, poverty, and poor health – we can give these kids a real chance at living a happy, healthy life.

It’s time ⁠— let’s give our children the future they deserve. Join us in calling for youth justice. 

Take action now

End police cages 

Some of these kids are being transported in police cages — a ute with a cage on the back and a blue tarpaulin for cover. No seat belts, lighting, heating or air conditioning. Some of those trips last more than five hours.

Treating children as young as 10 like this is against international standards, and transporting people in motor vehicles without seatbelts is against Australian law. Treating children this way amounts to torture and it has to stop now.

You can help demand they are transported safely and with dignity. Get children out of cages and back in their communities – with the support they need to have the future they deserve.

We are calling on the government to:

• Ban the use of police cages for transporting children
• Raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years old
• Ensure at-risk children have access to programs that address the underlying causes of youth crime
• Increase funding to Indigenous community-led organisations to support culturally appropriate prevention programs

Together we can make this happen.

If you want to have more impact, please consider making a donation today so that we can continue to mobilise activists, conduct meaningful research and lobby key politicians to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14 and put an end to children in police cages.

Donate today