Introduction In 1998, the Australian Human Rights Commission’s predecessor, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, reported that ‘[immigration] detention is especially undesirable for vulnerable people such as single women, children, unaccompanied minors and those with special medical or psychological needs’.1 The Commission in subsequent decades has continued to monitor Australia’s use of immigration detention and undertaken targeted monitoring and reporting on these and other particular cohorts of people in detention.2 The experience of women in immigration detention has seldom featured as a distinct area of focus in the Commission’s inspection reporting (with the notable exception of pregnant women and mothers3). This omission is not exclusive to the Commission’s immigration detention monitoring work; the published monitoring reports of the Commonwealth Ombudsman have also, until recently,4 only infrequently focused on the specific experiences and needs of women in detention.5 This absence of focused reporting on women in immigration detention is not unique to Australia. The United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UN SPT) has identified that across the globe, gender-specific perspectives on torture and illtreatment have not been adequately discussed and the particular risks of ill-treatment and torture faced by women in detention have received limited attention.6 The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants has reported that ‘[t]he specific situations, demands, views and needs of migrant women in detention are often unmet…’7. Further, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UN Special Rapporteur on Torture) has explained that women’s needs in detention often go unnoticed and unmet because detention and detention regimes ‘are typically designed for men’.8 While recognising that women make up only a small percentage of those detained in immigration detention globally, The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, its Causes and Consequences (UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women) has reported that: Women migrants held in immigration detention are subject to similar conditions as incarcerated women, including sexual and physical violence, violations of privacy and inadequate health care. The lack or inadequacy of interpretation and translation services may make it difficult or even impossible for women foreign nationals to make complaints or object to abuses. Cultural differences can also exacerbate these problems, especially where women migrants are used to complying unquestioningly with the demands of men or individuals in authority.9 Against this context, it is important to emphasise that the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (UN CEDAW Committee) has declared that the failure of detention facilities to meet the specific needs of women may constitute discrimination within the meaning of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).10 In their academic research on immigration detention, Esposito and Bosworth (2024) note that women have been ‘overlooked and invisibilised’.11 Esposito et al (2022) contend that empirical studies have rarely focused on the specific experiences of women.12 Nevertheless, the existing qualitative research stresses that women in immigration detention face particular challenges and present gender-specific needs, vulnerabilities, and resiliencies. Most women in these studies reported experiences of gendered violence, including sexual, domestic or reproductive violence.13 Notwithstanding this reporting within academic writing, Esposito and Bosworth (2024) have also said that overall, women find it extremely difficult to disclose their experiences of victimisation to immigration authorities, particularly inside detention centres.14 Introduction 9