Feedback from member states during the United Nation’s third Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Australia’s human rights track record found it seriously lacking in its commitments to international human rights law. Among the criticisms leveled at Australia by the international community is its treatment of First Nations peoples and the mandatory and indefinite detention of …
Tag Archives: Raise the age
Scrapping of bailhouses latest retrograde step in QLD youth justice reform
Amnesty International Australia has serious concerns about the Queensland Government’s decision to scrap bailhouses as the latest in a rollback of youth justice reforms. Following a Right To Information request in 2018, Amnesty International uncovered serious breaches of international law, which resulted in the Queensland Government introducing bailhouses as well as establishing a youth justice …
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Raise the Age Coalition welcome ACT’s nation-leading step towards raising the age
The national Raise the Age coalition of medical, legal, Aboriginal-led and human rights organisations today congratulated the new ACT Labor-Greens Government on its historic commitment to change the law in the ACT and raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility. State and territory Attorneys-General delayed making a decision to raise the age when they met …
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Qld voters reject discriminatory crime policies
Queensland voters have sent a clear signal to their elected officials that they need to get smart on crime and abandon policies that discriminate against the state’s most vulnerable. The LNP’s proposal for youth curfews in the State’s north were repudiated by electors with the party not winning the seats in Townsville and Cairns they …
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Newly elected NT Government must stick to its promise to raise the age
Following the likely return of the Gunner Labor party to office in the Northern Territory, the government must now make good on its promise to raise the age of criminal responsibility. In 2017, the Gunner government committed to recommendations from the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory including …
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LNP platform a disaster for youth justice reform
Responding to the launch of the Queensland LNP’s “tough on crime” youth justice platform, Amnesty International Australia campaigner Joel Clark said: “The proposal from the LNP for a three-strikes mandatory detention approach to youth justice is completely contrary to all the evidence that shows locking kids up simply does not work. “Sadly, the Queensland opposition …
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CAG should seize the opportunity to transform the lives of Indigenous kids by raising the age
The Councils of Attorneys-General (CAG), which is due to meet in July, has a unique opportunity to give hundreds of Indigenous kids back their childhoods, according to Amnesty International Australia’s new report, Raise the Age: Kids Belong in Community. The report finds that although the overall number of children in detention has fallen, this is …
Amnesty calls on police to show community leadership with a moratorium on arresting kids
Amnesty International Australia has called for a national moratorium on arresting children under the age of 14. Federal Parliament last week passed a motion agreeing in principle to raise the age of criminal responsibility, and the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has recommended Australia raises the age to 14. However, …
Submission: Review of Age of Criminal Responsibility
Amnesty International Australia has used the opportunity to repeat its strong opinion that the age of criminal responsibility should be raise in Australia. Across Australia, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is 10. This means that children as young as 10 are arrested by police, locked up in police cells, hauled before courts and sent …
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The will is there to raise the age, now we need action
Responding to the Communique from the Council of Attorneys-General today in Adelaide which progressed the review of raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility of 14, Amnesty International Australia Indigenous Rights Manager Tammy Solonec said: “We know there is the will to raise the age in Australia, but it’s disappointing that the Communique hasn’t noted …
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