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Every child deserves to grow up safe, supported and connected to their family, culture and community. 

But across Australia, children as young as 10 are being locked up and subjected to abusive practices including solitary confinement, police cages and detention in adult watch houses, use of spit hoods and restraints, instead of getting the care and opportunities they need to thrive. First Nations children are disproportionately impacted, being 23 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-Indigenous kids. 

These practices can amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment under international law. They cause long-term physical and psychological harm and should never happen to a child. 

Children have died in custody, and these deaths were preventable. Many of the children caught up in the youth justice system are already living with disability, trauma or the impacts of being in out-of-home care. 

We know that locking up children does not make communities safer. It entrenches trauma, increases the likelihood of future contact with the justice system and moves children further away from the support they need to thrive. We also know that children who enter the youth justice system when they are younger are more likely to reoffend. 

There is a better way. Community-led solutions help children stay connected to their families, culture and communities while addressing the challenges that can lead to contact with the justice system. They keep children supported, reduce offending and create safer communities. What's missing isn't evidence, it's the political will to act. 

We are calling on Australian governments to put children first and take immediate action to:

  • Protect every child's human rights through enforceable national minimum standards across youth detention.
  • Raise the minimum age a child can be imprisoned to at least 14 across Australia.
  • End abusive practices in youth detention, including solitary confinement, restraints and spit hoods, and holding children in adult facilities.
  • Guarantee every child access to education, health care, mental health support and meaningful family contact.
  • Invest in First Nations community-led responses that support children early, prevent harm and keep communities safer. 

Kids need better. It’s time to build a youth justice system that gives every child a chance to thrive. 

Sign now to demand action.

 

Sign the Petition

  Our Petition
 
 

Attorney-General of Australia

To the Attorney-General,

Australia’s youth detention system is in crisis. Across the country, children as young as 10 are being locked away and subjected to spit hoods, solitary confinement, police cages and detention in adult watch houses. These practices meet the United Nations definition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Torture is never acceptable. It is prohibited under international law in all circumstances, without exception. 

There is no public safety justification, political justification or operational justification for subjecting children to treatment that causes severe physical or psychological suffering. When governments allow this to occur, they are in breach of their most fundamental human rights obligations. 

Children have died in custody. These deaths are preventable.  

Every day these systems continue to operate as they do; they place children’s lives at risk. This treatment causes lasting harm to some of Australia’s most vulnerable children, many of whom are living with disability, have experienced trauma or are in out-of-home care.  

Decades of evidence show that locking up children does not make communities safer. Punitive approaches entrench trauma and disadvantage, increase the likelihood of future contact with the justice system and cost taxpayers on average more than $1 million per child per year for a system that demonstrably fails children and communities.  

Australia is not lacking evidence. It is lacking political will. The continued use of practices that amount to torture in youth detention is a policy choice, not an inevitability.  

There is a better way. Investing in supportive, evidence-based and community-led alternatives is safer, cheaper and far more effective at preventing harm and reducing reoffending. As the Commonwealth’s chief law officer, you have a critical role in ensuring Australia complies with its international human rights obligations.  
 
Amnesty International calls on the Federal Government to take immediate national leadership and action, including:  

  • Establishing national minimum standards through a National Youth Justice Framework to end torture and all cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in youth detention.  
  • Fully implementing OPCAT (the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture), ensuring independent, transparent and regular monitoring of all places where children are deprived of their liberty, including youth detention centres and police watch houses.  
  • Upholding the Convention on the Rights of the Child by: 
    • Raising the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years across Australia.  
    • Ending all practices that amount to torture or ill-treatment, including solitary confinement, spit hoods and the detention of children in adult facilities.  
    • Guaranteeing access to education, health care, mental health support and meaningful family contact.  
  • Legislating enforceable minimum standards so every child in detention is treated with dignity, safety and respect.  
  • Investing in community-based and Indigenous-led diversion and support programs that prevent harm and keep communities safer at a fraction of the cost of detention.  

No child in Australia should ever be subjected to torture. The prohibition on torture is absolute. Governments must act now to end these practices, prevent further deaths, comply with international law and replace a failing and harmful system with one that is safe, lawful, rehabilitative and effective. 

Yours sincerely,

[Your name]