UN Alerted to Australia’s Over-Imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Friday 19 September 2014 @ 2.24 p.m. | Judiciary, Legal Profession & Procedure | Legal Research
The Human Rights Law Centre has lodged a statement to the 27th session of the Human Rights Council currently underway in Geneva calling on the Council to urge Australia to take effective steps to address the social crisis of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ high imprisonment rates.
Background to the Statement
The HRLC’s Senior Lawyer, Ruth Barson, said successive Australian governments have failed to address the socio-economic reasons that lead to a disproportionate number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people being caught up in the criminal justice system:
“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are one of the most incarcerated groups in the world and statistics released just last week highlight, not just the depth of the problem, but that it is getting worse.”
Statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics last week show that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ imprisonment increased 10% in just one year, contributing to an 86% rise across the last decade. Figures from 2013 show that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are 15 times more like to be in prison than other Australians.
Particularly worrying is the statistics regarding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women:
“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women comprise just two per cent of the general population, yet over one third of the prison population. Clearly, our criminal justice systems are having a disproportionate impact on Aboriginal women and we need to address why the system is producing such discriminatory results when it comes to race and gender."
New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia hold 75% of the Indigenous prison population however more than 85% of the people locked up in the Northern Territory were Indigenous.
What Can be Done?
Australia is due to be reviewed by the Human Rights Council next year as part of a four yearly process known as the Universal Periodic Review. Australia is also preparing to campaign for a seat on the Human Rights Council in 2018. Additionally, Tony Abbott is also spending the week in Arnhem Land.
The Deputy Chairwoman of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service, Priscilla Collins, said there were “unique socioeconomic” reasons Indigenous people came into contact with the criminal justice system:
“Investing in early intervention strategies and tackling the root problems will yield better and fairer results, and these statistics are a wake-up call to governments at all levels to get serious about such programs.”
The Convenor of the National Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention and Legal Services Forum, Antoinette Braybrook, said that despite increasing need, the services had recently been hit by significant Government funding cuts:
“Family violence is the key root cause of Aboriginal women’s imprisonment and the removal of Aboriginal children from their families. Governments want to be tough on crime but they fail to invest in early intervention and prevention and access to legal representation for victim-survivors of family violence – things that we know reduce the vulnerability of Aboriginal women...We cannot ignore the specific needs and situations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. We should be building the capacity of culturally specific women’s organisations, not dismantling them."
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