Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Australia.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Australia. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing water On the other
hand, you might choose to write about the people acting in an official
capacity who perpetrate such cruelty.
There is a lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities. Scan other countries as well as this
one. Draw comparisons between activity
in adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Australia U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/australia/
[accessed 4 July
2021] PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Physical Conditions:
The most recent data from the Australian Institute of Criminology reported 72
prison deaths in 2017-18. Media sources alleged at least seven suspicious
deaths occurred since August 2019, two of which occurred in 2020. Death rates
for indigenous Australian prisoners continued higher than for others. For
example, in June and July, three Aboriginal prisoners died (two by suicide,
the third of unknown causes) in Western Australia prisons. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/australia/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 14 May
2020] F3. IS THERE PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE
OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND INSURGENCIES? Australia provides
protection from the illegitimate use of force, and Australians have means to
seek redress for harm. Prison conditions mostly meet international standards.
However, conditions at numerous juvenile detention centers are substandard.
Some children have instead been detained in adult prisons. In May 2019, an
ABC investigative program reported on the practice of placing minor detainees
in “watch houses,” maximum security facilities usually reserved for violent
adult offenders. The use of solitary
confinement has become controversial, with the Victoria state ombudsman
calling for the end of its use in September 2019. The ombudsman noted that
children and adolescents were sometimes placed in solitary confinement. Australia
excludes offshore detention facilities from torture prevention obligation Tamil guardian, 16
December 2017 [accessed 16 December
2017] The Australian
government confirmed it had excluded offshore detention facilities in the
islands of Manus and Nauru in its obligation to prevent the cruel, inhuman
and degrading treatment of people in detention, following the ratification of
the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) this week. The move has been
widely criticised by human rights groups who have
long cited ongoing allegations of torture of asylum seekers detained within
the facilities, which include a number of Tamils who have fled Sri Lanka. Groups
urge national youth justice changes Australian
Associated Press AAP, 20 Nov 2017 www.9news.com.au/national/2017/11/20/00/07/groups-urge-national-youth-justice-changes [accessed 20
November 2017] "We are deeply
concerned at the worsening rate at which Australia is locking up Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander children, which is now 25 times the rate of
non-indigenous children," they say. "In addition to
removing children from their families and communities, children are being
subjected to prolonged abuse including isolation, restraint chairs, spit
hoods and tear gas in youth prisons." Legal
body slams PM’s torture response Lawyers Weekly, 17
March, 2015 www.lawyersweekly.com.au/news/16277-legal-body-slams-pm-s-torture-response [accessed 31 March
2015] The UN Special
Rapporteur on Torture's finding of abuses in immigration detention has been
labelled by the Prime Minister, Mr Abbott, as
“absolutely bizarre” and he questioned its credibility. Ms Hammerton suggested the UN report shows Australia was in
breach of its obligations under the UN Convention Against Torture. “As well as
prohibiting torture, the convention extends to acts of degrading treatment
such as the inflicting of severe physical or mental pain and suffering,” she
said. “The report
outlines numerous examples of instances where physical and mental suffering
has been inflicted on asylum seekers in immigration detention facilities both
within Australia and controlled by Australia. “It suggests that
some of these instances may amount to torture.” Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] AUSTRALIA Australia has a
solid record of protecting civil and political rights, with robust
institutions and a vibrant press and civil society that act as a check on
government power. The government’s failure to respect international standards
protecting asylum seekers and refugees, however, continues to take a heavy
human toll and undermines Australia’s ability to call for stronger human
rights protections abroad. In 2014, Australia introduced new overbroad
counterterrorism measures that would infringe on freedoms of expression and
movement. The government has also done too little to address indigenous
rights and disability rights. UN Committee
against Torture’s Concluding Observations on Sweden, Ukraine, Venezuela,
Australia, Burundi, USA, Croatia and Kazakhstan Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights OHCHR, Geneva, 24 November 2014 www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15336&LangID=E [accessed 7 December
2014] The UN Committee
against Torture will be holding a news conference to discuss the concluding
observations of its 53rd session ... Among the issues discussed during the
session: AUSTRALIA: Violence against
women; trafficking in persons; indigenous people in the criminal justice
system; compliance with non-refoulement obligations
under the Convention; mandatory immigration detention for unauthorised
arrivals, including children; offshore processing of asylum seekers claims;
work of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual
Abuse. UN told of
allegations of torture in Australia’s child welfare system Bridie Jabour, Australia News, 27 October 2014 www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/28/un-told-allegations-torture-australia-child-welfare-system [accessed 26
November 2014] Allegations of
electric shocks and other forms of torture in orphanages and foster homes
within Australia’s child welfare system have been detailed in a submission to
the United Nations. The submission
alleges belts, straps, horse whips, canes, switches, wet towels, keys, fists,
pieces of wood and even rosary beads were used as weapons against children.
The most recent allegations are from the late 1990s. “Another way of
punishing children was to physically torture them. This differed to blatant
corporal punishment and assault. Instead it was often designed to slowly
cause intense pain or injury,” the submission says. “For example, there
have been some accounts of children being made to walk from post to post in the
blazing hot sun with bare feet, not only to tire them out but to cause severe
sunburn and blisters which would leave them in pain for days. As a result,
many [of those affected] now suffer from skin cancer. “In some orphanages
and homes children were made to cut large sections of grass using basic
stationery scissors, causing them to break down psychologically and
physically.” Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture
[PDF] U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment -- Doc. CAT/C/AUS/CO/3, 22 May 2008 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/australia2008.pdf [accessed 21
February 2013] 27. The Committee
is concerned about allegations against law enforcement personnel in respect
of acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment and notes a lack of investigations and prosecutions. 28. The Committee
is concerned about information indicating that Australian defence
officials who were advising the Coalition
Provisional Authority had knowledge of abuses committed in Abu Ghraib in
2003, yet did not call for prompt and impartial investigations. 29. The Committee,
while noting the significant efforts undertaken by the State party to provide
rehabilitation services to refugees who have suffered torture, regrets that
certain victims, such as those on bridging visas, are not guaranteed equal
access to these services. 30. The Committee is
concerned that the State party lacks uniform legislation to exclude admission
of evidence made as a result of torture. Furthermore, the Committee is
concerned over reports indicating that confessional evidence obtained under
ill-treatment in other countries has been used in criminal proceedings in
Australia. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 Australia continued
to violate the rights of Indigenous Peoples, stripping essential services
from Aboriginal homelands. Refugee policy favoured
deterrence, with mandatory, indefinite and remote detention for
asylum-seekers arriving by boat. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’
RIGHTS
- The government continued to limit funding for housing and municipal
services such as water and sanitation to Aboriginal peoples living on
traditional homelands in the Northern Territory. As a result, people were
effectively forced to abandon their traditional homelands to access essential
services. An expert panel on
the constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians was due to provide
recommendations to the Federal Parliament by December. JUSTICE SYSTEM - Indigenous
Peoples, while accounting for roughly 2.5 per cent of Australia’s population,
comprised 26 per cent of the adult prison population. Half of all juveniles
in detention were Aboriginal. A parliamentary committee report on Aboriginal
youth and justice published in June showed a jump of 66 per cent in
Aboriginal imprisonment rates between 2000 and 2009. In September and
October, security firm employees were fined for failing to prevent the death
of Aboriginal elder Mr Ward, who collapsed from
heatstroke in a prison van in 2008. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For current
articles:: Search Amnesty
International Website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=australia+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 25 December
2018] ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61601.htm [accessed 16 January
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61601.htm [accessed 2 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices; however, there were occasional reports that police
and prison officials mistreated suspects in custody. Some indigenous groups
charged that police harassment of indigenous people was pervasive and that
racial discrimination by some police and prison custodians persisted. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, " Torture by Police, Forced
Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st
Century- Australia", http://gvnet.com/torture/Australia.htm, [accessed
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