Australian Human Rights Commission Australia and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), Shadow report to the CERD Committee – 8 July 2010 must table the report in Parliament. 130 However, unlike breaches of the RDA, breaches of human rights under the AHRC Act are not unlawful. As such, complaints of human rights breaches in immigration detention can be investigated and conciliated by the Commission, but there is no legally enforceable remedy. Recommendation 45: That the Australian Government ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT). 131 8.5 Detention of families and children 154. In 2004, the Commission’s report of its National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention, A last resort?, found that Australia’s mandatory detention system was fundamentally inconsistent with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 132 Since that time, there have been some significant developments. In 2005 most children and their family members were released from Australia’s immigration detention centres, and the Migration Act was amended to affirm ‘as a principle’ that a minor should only be detained as a measure of last resort. 133 In 2008, the current Australian Government made a commitment that children, and where possible, their families will not be detained in an immigration detention centre. 134 The Commission has welcomed these developments. 155. However, the Commission has significant ongoing concerns. 135 In particular, while children are no longer detained in Australia’s high security immigration detention centres, they are still detained in other types of immigration detention facilities including immigration residential housing, immigration transit accommodation and alternative places of detention such as the ‘construction camp’ detention facility on Christmas Island. 136 156. As of 2 April 2010, there were 272 children in immigration detention – 163 on Christmas Island and 109 on the mainland.137 Of these 272 children, the vast majority (244 children) were in an immigration detention facility. 138 Only nine were in community detention. 139 The remaining 19 children were in alternative places of detention on the mainland – this may include temporary detention arrangements such as hotels and foster care placements. 140 157. The Commission has significant concerns about the practice of holding families with children and unaccompanied minors in immigration detention facilities. While the physical environment is generally preferable to the immigration detention centres, the effects of depriving children of their liberty can nevertheless be similar. In the Commission’s view, families with children and unaccompanied minors should not be held in detention facilities for anything other than the briefest of periods. Rather, they should be issued with bridging visas to reside in the community while their immigration status is resolved, or placed in community detention. 42