Victoria can show national leadership on raising the age

Amnesty International Australia has welcomed a Bill before the Victorian State Parliament which seeks to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14. Amnesty International Australia Indigenous Rights Advisor, Rodney Dillon, said: “This is an important step in the right direction to keep our kids out of jail. “We’ve known that the report …

NT youth need support, not prison

Amnesty International Australia and Balunu Healing Foundation have called on the Northern Territory government to give kids a chance at breaking the cycle of disadvantage and crime by diverting them into culturally appropriate programs that address the underlying intergenerational trauma which too often leads to crime, instead of condemning them to the quicksand of the …

NT Senator’s bail motion won’t work: raising the age will

Amnesty International Australia has serious concerns about a motion passed today by Northern Territory Senator Samantha McMahon to “overhaul weak bail laws” in the Territory. “The Northern Territory Government has already acknowledged and accepted the recommendations of the 2017 Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children, including raising the age of criminal responsibility,” …

QLD: rushing through punitive measures won’t solve youth offending issues

Amnesty International Australia has serious concerns about the Queensland Government’s rushing through the latest in a rollback of youth justice reforms. Among the “tough on repeat offenders” amendments are the introduction of GPS trackers and seeking to create a presumption against bail. However, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that youth crime rates …

Backtrack Boys Education Resources

BackTrack is a community based not-for-profit organisation helping young people who are having a hard time, get back on track. The program works with young people that find themselves hanging around in parks, stealing for food, sleeping on the streets, and running into trouble with the police. These young people are on a path to …

Proposed Alice Springs youth curfew will not go ahead: Minister Manison

In response to a motion passed by the Alice Springs Town Council, Amnesty International Australia wrote to the Northern Territory Police Minister, Nicole Manison, asking her to intervene and ensure that a curfew did not go ahead. Amnesty International Australia argued that a curfew on children and young people will only entrench cycles of disadvantage, …