After submitting to the Senate inquiry into legislative exemptions that allow faith-based educational institutions to discriminate against students, teachers and staff  ahead of the 26 November reporting deadline, Amnesty International Advocacy Manager Emma Bull said:

“The government has said that it will remove religious schools’ ability to expel students on the basis of their sexuality – which we welcome. This is a step in the right but without extending these protections to teachers and other staff, we are only going halfway to making schools inclusive and welcoming.

“By addressing these issues through amending the Sex Discrimination Act, the government can potentially contribute to the first generation of LGBTQI kids that are safe from entrenched discrimination at school and beyond – a new, secure and accepting world.

“Research indicates that LGBTQI children and young people are more likely than other children and young people to experience discrimination, bullying and abuse and are significantly more at risk of suicide, self harm and mental health impacts as a result.

“This is not about limiting religious beliefs, but ensuring those beliefs are not allowed to manifest through vilification and discrimination, and that the public purse does not fund that discrimination.

“This isn’t just about schools either – any institution that is publicly funded or provides services on behalf of the government, should not be able to discriminate in the provision of those services in in any way.

“The LGBTQI community have been put through a postal vote and multiple inquiries on their human rights in the last 18-months. It’s time for the government to act quickly and decisively”.

In response to an incident at Brisbane Youth Detention Centre earlier this week, and reports of a teenage boy being held in Mount Isa Police Watchhouse for 11 days, Amnesty International Australia Indigenous Rights Adviser, Rodney Dillon, said:

“These incidents were a direct result of the overcrowding in Queensland’s youth prisons, which is creeping towards a human rights crisis.

“More than 80% of kids in prison are unsentenced. They haven’t been found guilty, they are waiting to be heard. While they remain in prison, they are being harmed by the system.

“Queensland has the highest rate of kids in remand of the whole country. It is a blight on the youth justice system. The Palaszczuk Government has made progress in many areas, but this is definitely not one of them. We know that a new youth justice strategy is due by the end of the year, but we don’t know when any changes will come and kids are struggling in overcrowded prisons now.

Indigenous children remanded for longer

“The situation among Indigenous children is even more heightened. Indigenous children in Queensland spent an average of 71 days in detention on remand, compared with 50 days for non-Indigenous children. That is more than two months, and a month-and-a-half respectively.

“The precedent on the treatment of incarcerated children has been clearly set. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says that children should be released from pre-trial detention “as soon as possible”. The Beijing Rules says that pre-detention should “only be used as a last resort”.  The Human Rights Committee has said that “pre-trial detention of juveniles should be avoided to the fullest extent possible” and the Riyadh Guidelines provides a framework for preventative juvenile justice policies such as early intervention programs to support vulnerable families.

“Despite these strong guidelines, the Queensland Government continues to breach international standards.

“Just this week due to overcrowding we’ve had a disturbance in Brisbane, and a teenage boy locked in a watchhouse meant to be for ‘temporary holding’ and designed for adults – for nearly two weeks. These are not isolated incidents. There have been other reports of violent incidents, and even of children being forced to sleep on the floor. When will the government learn that their broken system is harming children?

“The obvious answer is to get kids on remand out of prison and back with their families, where safe to do so.

Stop locking up such young children

“Amnesty International Australia has also been calling on the Queensland Government to raise the age of criminal responsibility to fourteen. By doing this, the Queensland Government could move approximately 11% of the children out of prison and into early intervention and prevention programs that will get them back on track and help them lead happy, healthy lives.

“Children arrested before the age of 14 are three times more likely to commit offences as adults than children arrested after 14. By applying criminal penalties to young children we are trapping them in the justice system.

“Amnesty calls on the government to immediately raise the age that kids can be locked up to fourteen, and to move those currently in detention back to their families and into prevention programs in the community.

“We can’t continue to allow incidents like this, which are potentially harmful for both the children and the staff, to keep happening.  The government must act now.

• Area around main public hospital al-Thawra comes under sustained attack

• Medical worker describes hundreds of staff and patients fleeing in terror

• Australia must suspend arms and military assistance to Saudi Arabia, which may be used to commit these human rights abuses.

Amnesty International has again called on the Australian Government to suspend all military exports to Saudi Arabia, amid terrifying reports of an attack reportedly carried out by the Saudi Arabia and UAE-led coalition just before noon on 11 November.

The attack hit very close to al-Thawra hospital – Hodeidah’s largest public medical facility.

Hundreds of medical workers and patients, including a malnourished woman carrying her daughter in a surgical robe and a man still hooked up to a catheter, fled in terror as a series of large explosions rocked a hospital in central Hodeidah yesterday, according to an eyewitness who spoke to Amnesty International.

The pro-Saudi Arabian media outlet Al Arabiya reported that Coalition warplanes and attack helicopters targeted Huthi positions on 11 November, including in areas around the university, al-Thawra hospital and 22 May hospital.

A medical worker who was inside al-Thawra hospital at the time told Amnesty International that hundreds of patients and staff dodged a hail of shrapnel as they fled in panic. The sustained bombardment near the hospital lasted more than half an hour.

As the war in Yemen has escalated, Australia has expanded military exports to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, approving 14 military exports to the Kingdom in just the last two years. The Australian Government has repeatedly refused to reveal whether these exports are being used to carry out human rights abuses, such as the al-Thawra hospital attack.

“In armed conflict, hospitals are supposed to be places of sanctuary. But as the battle for control of Hodeidah intensifies, both sides seem intent on eviscerating the laws of war and disregarding the protected status of even the most vulnerable civilians,” said Lynn Maalouf, Middle East Research Director at Amnesty International.

“The situation is increasingly dire, and the UN Security Council must speak out before the battle for Hodeidah sparks a spiralling civilian catastrophe. Yesterday hospital patients and staff were lucky to escape with their lives. If things are allowed to continue like this, it won’t be long before the luck runs out and Hodeidah descends into horror.”

‘The shrapnel sounded like rain’

Speaking to Amnesty International just hours after the attack, the al-Thawra hospital worker said that explosions began at around 11:30am, but nobody inside the bustling hospital seemed fazed because they initially sounded far off. After months of skirmishes in the outskirts of the city and occasional air strikes by Saudi Arabia and UAE-led coalition aircraft, many Hodeidah residents have become accustomed to the sound of distant explosions.

But before long the hospital’s hundreds of patients and staff realized they were in mortal danger. The blasts came close enough to shake water in water bottles inside the hospital. The explosions were accompanied by the sound of anti-aircraft guns nearby.

“At five minutes to midday, the explosions intensified and were a lot closer. This time I was scared, also because I heard the sound of [anti-aircraft guns] for the first time. I ran to the reception area… I heard many explosions, and either bullets or shrapnel was hitting the metal roof of the hospital entrance, falling like rain. I could still hear explosions as I got out of the hospital, but I couldn’t focus on it. We were all too afraid for our safety,” the medical worker told Amnesty International.

He described how panicked people fled into Jamal Street outside the hospital, which is near the fishing harbour and university in the city centre, and fled on foot or in cars and minibuses. Saudi Arabia and UAE-led coalition aircraft were flying overhead and smoke was billowing from the Dentistry Faculty in the university complex, around 500m away. He said it was widely known the faculty had been full of Huthi fighters, both inside the building and gunmen stationed on the roof.

“I saw a patient carrying another patient. It looked like a mother and daughter. The mother was skin and bones, she was malnourished, a typical Yemeni mother… Nonetheless, she was managing to carry her 15 or 16-year-old daughter in her arms. Her daughter was crying. I knew she had either just had surgery or had been in preparation for surgery because she was in a blue surgical robe. There are no words to describe how I felt at this moment,” the medical worker said.

“I also saw a man walking as fast as he could while carrying a bag of his own urine. He was still attached to a urinary catheter while making his escape. This scene will stay with me for the rest of my life. There were many children too. Some parents were carrying their children. I saw 10 or 12 children among everyone else trying to flee.”

The medical worker said he returned to work at around 1pm. By that time, clashes had calmed down in that area but the hospital was semi-deserted.

An al-Thawra hospital spokesperson told Reuters that intensive care, burn unit and emergency room doctors and nurses stayed in the hospital during the attack. The witness Amnesty International spoke to confirmed this, saying, “A few brave doctors and medical staff chose to stay; I was among the majority that chose to leave.”

Hospital patients caught in the crossfire

In the aftermath of the attack, a World Health Organization staffer in Yemen lamented on Twitter how al-Thawra hospital “used to serve about 1,500 people per day [but] is now almost inaccessible as the ground fighting is raging.” Amnesty International can confirm that it is the only public hospital in Hodeidah, serving the city and four outlying districts. There are other hospitals in the city but they are private, so besides al-Thawra Hospital there are no viable alternatives for people with limited financial resources to access health care.

As such, al-Thawra hospital is a vital facility for civilians – including many children – in Hodeidah and along Yemen’s western coast who are facing acute malnutrition amid the country’s dire humanitarian crisis. Last week UNICEF warned that 59 children, 25 of them in intensive care, faced an “imminent risk of death” if fighting encroached on the hospital.

The attack on al-Thawra hospital comes just days after Amnesty International confirmed that Huthi fighters were placing civilians in danger by militarizing the 22 May hospital on Hodeidah’s eastern outskirts.

Sources on the ground told the organization that 22 May hospital has since been evacuated. According to media reports, Yemeni government forces then took control of it on 9 November.

It is also not the first time that al-Thawra hospital has been impacted by the conflict. On 2 August this year, an attack hit just outside the hospital, killing and injuring scores of civilians, including first responders who were coming to the aid of civilians hit in a separate strike on the nearby harbour. While it remains uncertain who was responsible for the attack, a Bellingcat open source investigation strongly suggested it was a result of mortars fired from the south by the Saudi Arabian and UAE-led coalition forces.

Hodeidah residents told Amnesty International that Huthi fighters have closed and barricaded two of the three roads outside al-Thawra hospital, declaring them to be “military areas”. Satellite imagery reviewed by the organization appears to corroborate this. As residents are forbidden from entering, they are unable to confirm what types of weapons or installations these areas now contain.

“It is feared that the latest attack near al-Thawra hospital may be due to the constant presence of Huthi fighters nearby and their tactic of basing artillery units in civilian areas. Stationing military forces in densely populated civilian areas and carrying out attacks from these locations endangers civilians. All parties are required to do their utmost to avoid locating military objectives amidst civilians. And using civilians to shield fighters from attack is absolutely prohibited and can constitute a war crime,” said Lynn Maalouf.

“International humanitarian law is very clear that hospitals carrying out their medical functions are never a target – and al-Thawra was very clearly a functioning hospital at the time of the attack. As well as violating the laws of war, deliberately attacking a functioning hospital is a war crime. All the warring parties must immediately halt attacks that endanger civilians, including attacks on or close to medical facilities.”