The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) warned in a statement issued It was highlighted on Tuesday that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Australia continue to face systematic racial discrimination in the country’s criminal justice system. The committee called on the state to increase efforts to eliminate racial discrimination against Indigenous children, including institutional discrimination within the criminal justice system.
The committee warned of continued over-representation in youth detention, noting that on an average day in 2023-24, Indigenous children made up around 65 per cent of children in custody, despite making up only 6.5 per cent of Australian children aged ten to seventeen. CERD said the inequality reflects broader structural inequalities faced by Indigenous children and communities, including discrimination in access to education, healthcare, housing and social security. Additionally, it noted that racial profiling, excessive policing, and law enforcement practices continue to increase the likelihood that Indigenous children will be arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated.
The committee also criticized the minimum age of criminal responsibility, which in many jurisdictions is below international human rights standards and in some cases as low as 10 years. It expressed concern that certain legal frameworks allow children to receive harsh adult sentences, in some cases even life imprisonment.
In addition, serious concerns were raised about the conditions of detention of Indigenous children, including prolonged solitary confinement, detention with adults, inadequate health care, mistreatment, use of spit hoods, and reported incidents of self-harm and suicide.
Recognizing the steps taken by Australia, including the establishment of the National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young Peoplethe National Justice Reinvestment Program and the Indigenous Advancement Strategy, CERD said it remained concerned about the lack of sufficient information about whether these measures would be effective in reducing over-representation.
The statement is part of a broader pattern of international scrutiny of Australia’s youth justice systems. In January 2024, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lawyers, human rights organizations and civil society groups criticized the Victorian government over alleged mistreatment of children in youth detention centers and delays in implementing protections under the Act Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT)which Australia ratified in 2017. Advocates warned that children in Victorian youth prisons were being subjected to practices such as solitary confinement and spitting.
In May 2025, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, and Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Albert K. Barume, also called on Queensland lawmakers to reject torture Making Queensland Safer (Adult Crime, Adult Time) Amendment Act. 2025. The experts warned that the bill, which aimed to expand the range of offenses for which children could be sentenced to adult sentences, was incompatible with the fundamental rights of the child and would disproportionately harm Indigenous children, who are already over-represented in the criminal justice system.
