Scholars: Australia Hides Abuse of Prisoners & Indigenous People Behind Closed Doors
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The United Nations abruptly wrapped up its anti-torture mission to Australia on Sunday after inspectors were not allowed to visit numerous jails and detention centers in the country, according to the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT).
"Usually doors are only closed if officials have something to hide," Stuart Rees, Australian academic, human rights activist, and author, told Sputnik. "Too often, even in democracies, leading politicians like to think that their (outdated) views of sovereignty entitle them to ignore UN obligations. A certain authoritarianism implies that State forms of punishment and containment should never be challenged."
The row between the Australian authorities and the UN watchdog erupted after New South Wales barred SPT inspectors from a small courthouse jail, while Queensland did not allow them to visit inpatient units at mental health facilities. What's more, Dominic Perrottet, the premier of New South Wales, on October 24 justified blocking the UN representatives. He argued that Australia is a "sovereign country in our own right and we have a high standard when it comes to correctional facilities."
However, in 2017, Australia ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), thus making facilities subject to inspection. "This is a clear breach by Australia of its obligations under OPCAT. State parties have an obligation to both receive the SPT in their territory and allow it to exercise its mandate in full, as reflected in Articles 12 and 14,” said Aisha Shujune Muhammad, the head of the delegation.
"Australia has an unhappy relationship with prison conditions and detention facilities at all levels of government (federal, state and territories)," noted Dr. Binoy Kampmark, senior lecturer at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. "New South Wales, along with Queensland, have blocked access to prison facilities and inpatient units respectively for obvious reasons that they may fall short of compliance with the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment. The reason for falling short of implementing the recommendations of OPCAT over the last four or five years have been put down to a lack of funding from the federal government, upon which the States are heavily reliant."
According to the academic, state governments said that they will not resolve compliance issues with the Convention Against Torture unless they receive adequate funding to keep their facilities in line with international obligations. However, the Commonwealth has so far not resolved this issue, which only amplifies the problem.
2 June 2020, 13:40 GMT
First Nations, Indigenous Kids & Refugees Subjected to Abuse
To complicate matters further, indigenous inmates and detained refugees remain especially vulnerable to human rights abuse in Australia. Rights groups have recently raised alarm about the incarceration of Indigenous communities as well as the detention of refugees in the country. Even though the Australian government has officially signed the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, they continue to keep Aborigines in prisons in unbearable conditions, activists argue.
"Chronic, structural and systemic deprivation, along with a perennial inability to deal with the First Nations peoples in Australia fairly, has given Australian authorities an appalling record in terms of incarceration," Kampmark emphasized. "Deaths in custody remain an ongoing problem, often the result of inappropriate incarcerations, poor policing, inadequate facilities and health care."
The academic drew attention to 517 Indigenous deaths since the findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, citing the National Deaths in Custody Program. Between June 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022, there were 24 deaths.
In addition to that, the number of Indigenous Australian prisoners is continuing to grow, even though the overall number of adult inmates is plummeting nationally. Thus, there were 12,456 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander detainees in 2019-2020, up from 7,507 in 2010-2011.
The Northern Territory and New South Wales had the highest general rates of imprisonment in 2020, with 694 and 537 inmates per 100,000. Meanwhile, in Western Australia, indigenous people are 16 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-Indigenous people, according to some estimates. First Nation kids also fall victim to the troublesome trend. In July 2022, 17 mostly indigenous teenagers were placed in WA's Casuarina prison for adults for what the state qualified as an "escalation in extreme behavior."
"It goes back to the origins of European settlement in the country when the aboriginal people were denied basic human rights, including the right to vote," said James O'Neill, an Australia-based barrister and geopolitical analyst. "They were exploited workers on properties which have been confiscated from them. Without the right to vote there was no legitimate way to protest their conditions. Rather than being imprisoned in unbearable conditions, the greater problem is the rate of incarceration, which vastly exceeds the imprisonment rate for white people convicted of the same offenses."
Last year, thousands of people rallied across Australia to protest the continuing scourge of Aboriginal deaths in custody, unpaid compensation, open racism, displacement of aborigines from their lands, high infant mortality, and inadequate access to health care. The acute problems raised a year ago have yet to be solved, said O'Neill.
"Access to healthcare for example is partly a function of the physical location, often in remote communities without access to basic resources like proper health care. The problem is one of fundamental racism. There is little demand in the majority white population for tackling the problems which have many facets, of which geographical location is a basic one," said the Australia-based barrister, adding that he does not expect any U-turn on the matter on the part of state governments.
On top of this, "Australia remains a pioneer in the cruel treatment of refugees who arrive by boat without authorization, maintaining offshore concentration camps in Nauru and Manus Island," highlighted Kampmark. He noted that these camps "were created, perversely enough, to 'save lives' but also deter individuals using sea routes from reaching the mainland."
13 February 2017, 16:19 GMT
No Silver Lining to This Cloud Yet
"There has been a comprehensive, angry reaction from human rights groups and organizations to the conduct of the state governments," said Kampmark. "A joint statement from Australian Lawyers for Human Rights signed by 70 groups considers the obstruction 'a clear breach by Australia of its obligations under OPCAT'."
The academic suggested that pressure on New South Wales and Queensland may also be brought to bear from the Commonwealth government.
"The subcommittee policing OPCAT sees Australia as a country rather than a federation of different units and levels. The challenge for Australia has always been harmonizing human rights obligations at all levels of government," Kampmark explained.
The crux of the matter is that most tax revenue is gathered by the Commonwealth, while states and territories rely on the federal purse to pursue their projects, according to the academic.
Nonetheless, the lack of funding is no excuse for states not to do more to prioritize the improvement of detention facilities, he added, expressing hope that the public outcry and continued pressure will lead to the problem being dealt with.
However, James O'Neill is less optimistic, arguing that there is no clear solution to the vicious cycle of human rights abuse in the country.
"I do not think the problem is solvable at the state level," the lawyer said. "It requires federal intervention and unfortunately the federal government is almost as bad as the state governments. The United Nations is an important vehicle for airing the problems, but to get effective local action requires a fundamental change in the attitude of governments, both State and federal. I don't see that happening any time soon."
