‘A’ escaped from Cambodia and sought refuge in Australia. For the next 4 years he was detained in immigration centres. He complained to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC). The UNHRC found that this was an abuse of human rights. The UNHRC deemed this to be in breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)¹ due to the length of time ‘A’ had been detained and for refusal to allow him to appeal his detention in an Australian court. The UNHRC declared that Australia should pay compensation to ‘A’. However the Australian Government rejected the findings and refused to pay any compensation. Read a full record² of this case.

D&E v Australia is much the same as the above case. An Iranian family had been kept in detention for 3 years and 2 months. The UNHRC agreed that this was in breach of the ICCPR, however the Australian Government disagreed. Read more about the case here³.

• To learn more about these cases⁴ and others, visit the Australian Human Rights Commission.

• To learn more about immigration detention and human rights⁵ visit the Australian Human Rights Commission site.

• Learn more about mandatory detention by reading this fact sheet⁶ from Amnesty International

Think about

Assess the effectiveness of international law in upholding human rights.

Specific articles within CROC relate to children who are refugees

• Article 3 – the children’s interests are a primary consideration.

• Article 20 – unaccompanied asylum seeker children should be given special protection and assistance from the government.

• Article 37 – protection from torture, cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment.

• Article 6 – right to life.

• 37b – no child shall be deprived of liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. Arrest and detention should be used as a last resort and for the shortest time possible. Those held in detention centres must not be held in prison-like centres. All efforts should be made to release children from detention centres.

Learn more about CROC⁷ here.

To learn more about the rights of the child visit UNICEF⁸

Think about

‘If children are held in Immigration detention, is the Australian Government in breach of CROC?’ Discuss.