Protecting Children from Harm in Juvenile Detention

ABC , ‘Australia's Shame: The Brutalisation of Children behind Bars’, Four Corners, 25 July 2016 (John B Lawrence, Barrister).

ABC , ‘CCTV Shows Alleged Mistreatment at Townsville's Cleveland Youth Detention Centre’, 7:30 Report 18 August 2016.

Kilroy Debbie (@DebKilroy), ‘Images of young girl in swimming pool being threatened by guards with an un-muzzled dog Child abuse by State <https://twitter.com/debkilroy/status/766138107208925184>.

Core and Protection of Children Act 2007 (‘CPA’) ss 15, 20(a). In Queensland, harm is ‘any detrimental effect of a significant nature on the child's physical, psychological or emotional wellbeing’: Child Protection Act 1999 (Qld).

Cunneen Chris , ‘Abuse in Youth Detention is not Restricted to the Northern Territory’ (28 July 2016) The Conversation <https://theconversation.com/abuse-in-youth-detention-is-not-restricted-to-the-northern-territory-63101>.

ABC , above n 2.

ABC , above n 1.

ABC , above n 2.

Dierkhising Carly B , ‘Victims Behind Bars’ (2014) 20(2) Psychology, Public Policy and Law 181.

Gooch Kate , ‘Who Needs Restraining?’ (2015) 37(1) Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 3, 11–12.

Dierkhising, above n 9, 187.

Day Andrew and Daffern Michael , Inquiry into Policy and Practice in the Use of Physical Restraint in South Australian Residential Facilities for Children and Young People (Guardian for Children and Young People, 2009) 10.

Australian Children's Commissioners and Guardians , Human Rights Standards in Youth Detention in Australia (April 2016), 39.

Haney Craig and Lynch Mona , ‘Regulating Prisons of the Future’ (1997) 23 NYU Review of Law and Social Change 477, 500.

Shalev Sharon , ‘Solitary Confinement and Supermax Prisons’ (2011) 11 Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice 151, 155–6; and Shalev, ‘Solitary Confinement as a Prison Health Issue’ in Enggist (eds), Prisons and Health (WHO, 2014) 27, 28.

Birckhead Tamar , ‘Children in Isolation’ [2015] 50 Wake Forest Law Review 1, 10–17.

Children's Commissioner , Isolation and Solitary Confinement of Children in the English Youth Justice Secure Estate (September 2015) 61–3; Shalev (2014) above n 15, 30.

See Shalev (2014), above 15, 29.

See Indig Devon , 2009 NSW Young People in Custody Health Survey: Full Report (2011) 144–57.

ICCPR, opened for signature 16 December 1966, 999 UNTS 171 (entered into force 23 March 1976); CROC, opened for signature 20 November 1989, 1577 UNTS 3 (entered into force 2 September 1990); CAT, opened for signature 10 December 1984, 1465 UNTS 85 (entered into force 26 June 1987).

ICCPR art 2(2); CROC art 4; CAT art 2.

CROC art 44; CAT art 19; ICCPR art 40; Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, opened for signature 16 December 1966, 999 UNTS 171 (entered into force 23 March 1976).

ICCPR art 7; CAT art 16; CROC art 37(a).

UN HRC, CCPR General Comment 20: Article 7 (Prohibition of Torture or other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment) (10 March 1992) paras [5]-[6].

UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (adopted by General Assembly Resolution 70/175 of 17 December 2015) rr 44, 37(d).

CROC art I.

CROC art 3(1).

CROC art 40.

Committee on the Rights of the Child , General Comment No 10 in relation to Children's Rights in Juvenile Justice, 44th sess, UN Doc CRC/C/GC/10 (25 April 2007) [4] implementing the UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty (adopted by General Assembly Resolution 45/113 of 14 December 1990) (‘Havana Rules’).

See eg, Committee on the Rights of the Child , Consideration of the Reports Submitted by States under Article 44 of the Convention-Concluding Observations: Singapore, 34th sess, UN Doc CRC/C/ 15/Add.220 (27 October 2003) [45(d)].

UN Human Rights Council , Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 66th sess, UNGA Doc A/66/268 (5 August 2011) [77].

Committee on the Rights of the Child , General Comment No 8 in relation to the Right of the Child to Protection from Corporal Punishment and other Cruel or Degrading Forms of Punishment, 42nd sess, UN Doc CRC/C/GC/10 (2 March 2007) [II].

Ibid.

R(C) v The Secretary of State for Justice [2008] EWCA Civ 882, [58]–[59].

CPCF v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2015) 255 CLR 514, 643–44 (Keane J) citing, inter alia, Koowarta v Bjelke-Petersen (1982) 153 CLR 168, 204.

Cf. the ACT and Victorian Human Rights Acts, which incorporate much of the ICCPR. However, generally for the ICCPR, CAT and CROC see: Tomasevic v Travaglini (2007) 17 VR 100, 113; and Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Teoh (1994–1995) 183 CLR 273.

See Naylor Bronwyn , ‘Protecting the Human Rights of Prisoners in Australia’ in Gerber and Castan (eds), Contemporary Perspectives on Human Rights Law in Australia (Lawbook, 2013) 403.

YJR reg 71 (1); QYJR reg 16(5); CYFA s 487(b)(i).

CYFA s 487(b)(ii).

QYJR reg 16(5)(b).

YJA s 153(3).

(2014) 34 NTLR 115.

Edwards v Tasker (2014) 24 NTLR 115, 126.

NT Children's Commissioner , Own Initiative Investigation Report Services Provided by the Department of Correctional Services at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre (August 2015) 21–2.

Giines v Turkey (European Court of Human Rights) Chamber, Application No 9829/07, 10 July 2012 [43].

CYFA s 487(b)-(f).

Braithwaite Alyssa , ‘Only the Northern Territory Used Restraint Chairs on Children’, SBS, 27 July 2016.

YJA ss 152(IA), 153(4); QYJR reg 19(I)(c).

There is some question over restraint chairs given the NT parliament only passed legislation permitting their approval in June this year. Reports note that use of such restraints has been suspended pending the Royal Commission's investigation into Don Dale: see Braithwaite: above n 47.

YJA ss 153(4), 155; QYJR reg 19(l)(c).

R(C) v The Secretary of State for Justice [2008] EWCA Civ 882, [7].

Human Rights Act 1998 (UK) c 42.

R(C) v The Secretary of State for Justice [2008] EWCA Civ 882, [59].

QYJR reg 16(4)(c); CYFA s 487(c),(d).

Vita Michael , Review of the Northern Territory Youth Detention System Report (January 2015) 13.

Dog use has since ceased in Queensland: Amnesty International, ‘“Heads Held High”: Keeping Queensland Kids out of Detention, Strong in Culture and Community’ (August 2016) 26.

NT position appears confused as isolation is permitted in a section entitled ‘Discipline’.

QYJR reg 21 (c)-(e); YJA s 153(5).

CYFA s 488(2).

CYFA ss 487(a), 488(2) and 488(7).

NT Children's Commissioner, above n 44, 40.

Amnesty International, above n 56, 27.

YJA s 153(5).

QYJR reg 21 (2)(c); CYFA s 488(3) combined with s 17.

Irish Penal Reform Trust, Detention of Children in Ireland: International Standards and Best Practice (2009), 69.

NT Children's Commissioner, above n 44, 33.

YJR reg 42.

Human Rights Watch , Growing Up Locked Down (October 2012), 61.