Australian Human Rights Commission Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee, 18 September 2017 Australian Human Rights Commission, Children’s Rights Report 2015 (2015) 132. At https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/childrens-rights/publications/childrens-rights-report-2015 (viewed 11 September 2017). 117 Australian Human Rights Commission, Children’s Rights Report 2015 (2015). At https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/childrens-rights/publications/childrens-rights-report-2015 (viewed 11 September 2017). 118 Australian Human Rights Commission, All I want is a life free from violence (2015). At https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/AHRC_Summary_Childrens_Rights_Report_2015.p df (viewed 11 September 2017); Australian Human Rights Commission, Children’s Rights Report 2015 (2015), chapter 4. At https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/AHRC_ChildrensRights_Report_2015_0.pdf (viewed 11 September 2017). 119 Productivity Commission, Report on Government Services 2015 (2015) 15.28–15.30. At http://www.pc.gov.au/research/recurring/report-on-government-services/2015/communityservices/child-protection (viewed 11 September 2017). 120 The Family Law Legislation Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Act 2011 (Cth) introduced changes to the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) that better ensure the safety of children by expanding the definition of ‘family violence’ to include socially and financially controlling behaviour and exposing a child to family violence and making it easier for victims to report violence. 121 Australian Human Rights Commission, Children’s Rights Report 2014 (2014), 16-18. At https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/childrens-rights/publications/childrens-rights-report-2014 (viewed 11 September 2017). The Federal Parliament also passed the Enhancing Online Safety for Children Act (2015) Cth, which will establish a Children’s e-Safety Commissioner. 122 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 3303.0 – Causes of Death, Australia, 2012 (2014), Table 1.3, Line 40. At http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3303.0Explanatory%20Notes12012?OpenDocu ment (viewed 11 September 2017). 123 Australian Human Rights Commission, All I want is a life free from violence (2015). At https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/AHRC_Summary_Childrens_Rights_Report_2015.p df (viewed 11 September 2017); Australian Human Rights Commission, Children’s Rights Report 2015 (2015), chapter 4. At https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/AHRC_ChildrensRights_Report_2015_0.pdf (viewed 11 September 2017). 124 In particular, children have been held in adult detention facilities in Western Australia and Victoria. These transfers have been examined through litigation in which the Commission intervened, Wilson v Joseph Michael Francis, Minister for Corrective Services for the State of Western Australia [2013] WASC 157 (3 May 2013), and a Victorian Ombudsman investigation, Investigation into Children Transferred from the Youth Justice System to the Adult Prison System (2013). At https://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/getattachment/6a579e49-212e-42b0-9d3c791e2d60e102//reports-publications/parliamentary-reports/investigation-into-children-transferred-fromthe-y.aspx (viewed 11 September 2017). The National Children Commissioner raised this concern in her inaugural report. Australian Human Rights Commission, Children’s Rights Report 2013 (2013), 33. At https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/childrens-rights-report-2013 (viewed 11 September 2017). The Commission notes recent amendments to the Youth Justice Act 1992 (Qld) that will stop the transfer to 17-year-olds with six months remaining of their sentence from a youth justice centre to an adult facility in Queensland (see Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016 (Qld) cl 30 amending Youth Justice Act 1992 (Qld) s 276B). However, the Commission remains concerned that young people aged 17 years continue to be treated as adults by the Queensland criminal justice system and may still serve a sentence of imprisonment in an adult facility (see Youth Justice Act 1992 (Qld) sch 4 definition of ‘child’). 125 Australian Human Rights Commission, Children’s Rights Report 2016 (2016) Ch 3. At https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/AHRC_CRR_2016.pdf (viewed 11 September 2017). 126 In 2015-16 the nightly average of children and young people being held in detention was 49 – 11 in the Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre and 38 in the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin. 94% of the children and young people in detention in the Northern Territory are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, Interim Report (31 March 2017) 9. At https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/about-us/Documents/RCNT-Interim-report.pdf (viewed 11 September 2017). 116 51