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The United Nations Youth Association of Australia welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention. The issue of immigration detention for children has been coming under increased scrutiny in the past eight months. As far as it affects our international standing, the standards by which we treat children and our policies regarding refugees, it is a matter of great importance, which must be rigorously discussed in the public arena.

ChilOut was established in July 2001 by a group of concerned parents and citizens who felt compelled to advocate and act on behalf of children and their parents living in Australia's immigration detention centres (IDC).

The primary responsibilities of the Legal Section are to assist the President or their delegate in the preparation of notices and reports under the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986 (Cth); to act as counsel or instructing solicitor for the Commission in interventions and amicus curiae matters; to assist the Commission in work arising from legislation or bills raising human rights issues and to monitor and promote awareness of developments in international and domestic human rights law, including discrimination jurisprudence in the Federal Court and Federal Magistrates Cour

The Council for Civil Liberties NSW (CCL) considers mandatory detention of asylum seekers to be a breach of Australia's international obligations. The CCL is of the view that mandatory detention of children is morally indefensible particularly given Australia's ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CROC)

1. BACKGROUND TO UNAA's CONCERN 2. THIS INQUIRY 3. AUSTRALIA'S INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS OBLIGATIONS 4. MANDATORY DETENTION OF CHILDREN, and ALTERNATIVES 5. CHILD ASYLUM SEEKERS IN DETENTION AND THE COMMUNITY 6. IMPACT OF DETENTION ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN 7. MEASURES REQUIRED TO PROTECT INTERESTS OF CHILDREN 8. MEASURES FOR PROTECTING INTERESTS OF CHILD ASYLUM SEEKERS AND REFUGEES 9. CONCLUSION 10. RECOMMENDATIONS

back to contents Chapter 5: Addressing family violence in Indigenous communities There is no issue currently causing more destruction to the fabric of Indigenous communities than family violence. This has been acknowledged by all levels of government in recent years, with a number of significant inquiries and initiatives undertaken or commenced at the federal, state and territory level to address its impact. The intensive scrutiny and public awareness of this issue has not, however, led to sufficient commitments of resources and effort to date.

1. The provisions made by Australia to implement its international human rights obligations regarding child asylum seekers, including unaccompanied minors.

1.1 This Report uses findings of coronial inquests as a means of auditing the implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

These notes summarise three separate consultations attended by a total of 41 high school students in Years 7 -11 from three government schools in the Parramatta, Granville and Bondi school districts in the Sydney metropolitan area. Most students invited to take part in the consultations were of Muslim or Arabic-speaking background. Students were required to obtain permission from their parents in order to participate. The meetings were organised with the assistance of the NSW Department of Education and Training and participating schools.

"I've noticed that in the smaller country towns, even though Muslims do get discriminated against, the towns are a lot better than the big cities. I've noticed it when I go home to Innisfail, which is 65 kms south of Cairns. When I go back home, I have no problem at all. I'm one of the only ladies who wears the scarf. You might see one every couple of months but really there's no-one up there who wears it. I've actually had a ladies come up and ask me 'Oh, why do you wear it? You look so beautiful with it on'."

1. The adequacy and effectiveness of the policies, agreements, laws, rules and practices governing children in immigration detention or child asylum seekers and refugees residing in the community after a period of detention

The following material was provided to the Inquiry by Michael Williams, Chairman of the Swedish Network of Refugee and Asylum Support Groups in a series of emails in April 2003.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that around half of the 50 million displaced persons in the world are children. Around 10 million of these children are under the care of UNHCR. Approximately 100,000 separated children roam Western Europe.(1) During 1999 alone, more than 20,000 separated children applied for asylum in Western Europe, North America or Australia.(2) Of those 20,000 unaccompanied children, 46 travelled to Australia to seek asylum. In the same year a further 202 children sought asylum in Australia with their families.(3)