Australia's glowing report card to the UN ignores a youth justice system in crisis

Australia’s national report to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review presents a picture of human rights progress that is impossible to reconcile with the treatment of children in detention across the country, according to Jesuit Social Services. 
 
“Australia has told the United Nations that it provides comprehensive training to ensure the appropriate care of detainees and that jurisdictions are investing in ‘fit-for-purpose prisons’. What it has not told the UN is that children as young as ten are still being locked up, teenagers as young as 13 are routinely held in solitary confinement, and subjected to abuse in detention centres around the country,” says Jesuit Social Services CEO Julie Edwards. 

“The UN’s own compilation report, prepared for the same review, tells the real story. The Committee against Torture has raised serious concerns about the very low age of criminal responsibility, the persistent overrepresentation of First Peoples children in detention, children held in solitary confinement at facilities including Don Dale and Banksia Hill, and children not being separated from adults. UN experts have described youth justice systems across Australia as being in crisis.” 

Ms Edwards says the national report’s celebration of new prison construction reveals the failure at the heart of Australia’s approach. “Building more prison beds is a sign of failure, not success. The number of First Peoples in prison has increased by 42 per cent since 2017-18. Thirty-three First Peoples died in custody in 2024-25 – the highest number recorded since 1979. Australia is on track to meet only four of the 19 Closing the Gap targets, and the adult imprisonment target is going backwards. None of this appears in Australia’s account of itself to the international community.” 

“The report is also silent on raising the age of criminal responsibility, despite the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child calling for a minimum age of 14 and despite governments – including Victoria’s – walking back commitments to do so.”  

Ms Edwards says the gap between Australia’s international rhetoric and domestic practice extends to its treatment of UN oversight itself. “Australia tells the UN it has adopted a cooperative model for implementing the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. Yet the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture was forced to suspend its visit to Australia in 2022 because it was blocked from entering places of detention. You cannot claim credit for cooperation while shutting the door on inspectors.” 

“We are calling on the Commonwealth to show genuine leadership: raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 in all jurisdictions, end the solitary confinement of children, invest in the early intervention and diversion programs that actually reduce crime, and hold states and territories accountable for meeting Closing the Gap targets. That is what an honest report to the United Nations would commit to.”