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Victoria’s youth detention system is in crisis. Children as young as 12 are being subjected to solitary confinement, isolation, and rolling lockdowns, practices that meet the UN definition of torture.

This treatment causes lasting harm to some of the state’s most vulnerable children. Decades of evidence show that locking up children does not work. Punitive practices entrench trauma, disadvantage and future offending, while costing taxpayers astronomical amounts for a system that fails children and communities. 

Investing in supportive, evidence-based alternatives is safer, cheaper and more effective.

Amnesty International calls on the Victorian Government to fully implement its international human rights obligations, including:

  1. OPCAT (Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture), ensuring independent, transparent and regular monitoring of all youth detention facilities, with the power to inspect, report, and make binding recommendations.
  2. CROC (Convention on the Rights of the Child), including:
    1. Raising the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years.
    2. Ending all treatment that amounts to torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
    3. Guaranteeing access to education, health care, mental health support, and family contact.
  3. Legislate minimum standards for youth detention so every child is treated with dignity, safety, and respect.
  4. Invest in community-based programs, including Indigenous-led diversion initiatives, to support children, prevent harm, and keep communities safer at far lower cost than detention.

Victoria must act immediately to protect children, uphold international human rights law, and make youth detention safe, lawful, rehabilitative, and cost-effective.

Sign now to demand action.

 

Sign the Petition

  Our Petition
 
 

Premier of Victoria

To the Government of Victoria,

Victoria’s youth detention system is in crisis. Children as young as 12 are being subjected to solitary confinement, isolation, and rolling lockdowns - practices that meet the UN definition of torture.

This treatment causes lasting harm to some of the state’s most vulnerable children. Decades of evidence show that locking up children does not work. Punitive practices entrench trauma, disadvantage and future offending, while costing taxpayers astronomical amounts for a system that fails children and communities.

Investing in supportive, evidence-based alternatives is safer, cheaper and more effective. I’m calling on you to fully implement your international human rights obligations, including: 

  1. OPCAT(Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture), ensuring independent, transparent and regular monitoring of all youth detention facilities, with the power to inspect, report, and make binding recommendations.
  2. CROC (Convention on the Rights of the Child), including:
    1. Raising the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years.
    2. Ending all treatment that amounts to torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading.
    3. Guaranteeing access to education, health care, mental health support, and family contact.
  3. Legislate minimum standards for youth detention so every child is treated with dignity, safety, and respect. 
  4. Invest in community-based programs, including Indigenous-led diversion initiatives, to support children, prevent harm, and keep communities safer at far lower cost than detention.

Victoria must act immediately to protect children, uphold international human rights law, and make youth detention safe, lawful, rehabilitative, and cost-effective.   

Yours sincerely,

[Your name]