Australia’s Youth Justice and Incarceration System

Youth justice and incarceration around Australia are in crisis, and not for the first time.

It is important to note at the outset that, despite the title of this inquiry, we are not dealing with a single system. Each state and territory is responsible for criminal justice and community safety within its jurisdiction, and each approaches the task somewhat differently. However, there are common denominators, including ‘tough on crime’ policies purporting to promote community safety, that underpin the approach of the nation as a whole to criminalising and punishing the behaviour of children.

As observed by National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds in her recent, compelling report Help Way Earlier! How Australia can transform child justice to improve safety and wellbeing, Australia has international obligations, including under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC),¹ to people under 18 years.² Some of the most important principles contained in that instrument are that policies affecting children should be formulated with ‘special safeguards and care’ due to children’s physical and mental immaturity,³ and the best interests of the child as a primary consideration, and further that detention should only ever be a last resort as a punishment for children.⁴ These principles, as amply demonstrated by the Commissioner’s report, are not being respected in most Australian jurisdictions today. This submission includes a discussion of responsibility under international law, which cannot be seen solely as a matter for the Commonwealth Government.

Read the full submission below.

^{1 Convention on the Rights of the Child, opened for signature 20 November 1989, 1577 UNTS 3 (entered into force 2 September 1990).
2 National Children’s Commissioner (AHRC), Help Way Earlier! Report, September 2024: <https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/childrens-rights/publications/help-way-earlier>, 4.
3 Convention, Preamble.
4 Convention, article 37(b).}

Last Updated on 06/11/2024

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