Australia moves to strengthen oversight and accountability of places of detention

Human Rights Law Centre | 28 Feb 2012

Australia has moved a step closer to ensuring independent monitoring, inspection and oversight of places of detention.

The Commonwealth Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, and the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, Craig Emerson, today tabled a National Interest Analysis on Australia’s ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture.

The Optional Protocol is an international treaty which aims to prevent ill treatment and promote humane conditions by establishing systems for independent monitoring and inspection of all places of detention.

“It is not only in the interests of persons deprived of liberty, but also the broader community, that all places of detention – whether prisons, psychiatric hospitals, police cells or disability facilities – promote rehabilitation and reintegration. It is fundamental that all detainees are treated with basic dignity and respect. Independent inspections and oversight are critical in this regard,” said Human Rights Law Centre Executive Director, Phil Lynch.

At the national level, the Optional Protocol requires that countries establish what is known as a “national preventative mechanism”, or NPM. An NPM is an independent body with a mandate to conduct both announced and unannounced visits to places of detention, to make recommendations to prevent ill treatment and improve conditions, and to report publicly on its findings and views.

At the international level, the Optional Protocol establishes an independent committee of experts, the UN Sub-Committee on the Prevention of Torture, with a mandate to carry out country missions to monitor deprivations of liberty.

According to Mr Lynch, “The whole system is premised on the evidence and experience that external scrutiny of places of detention can prevent and redress torture and other forms of ill treatment. By making places of detention more open, transparent and accountable, it helps to ensure that persons deprived of liberty – whether people with psychiatric illness, prisoners, people with disability or asylum seekers – are treated with basic dignity and respect.”

Australia signed the Optional Protocol in May 2009. Since that time, progress on ratification and implementation has been slow, with wrangling between the states and the Commonwealth about who is to foot the modest bill for detention monitoring and oversight. According to Mr Lynch, “This is despite international evidence as to the very high social and economic costs of failing to prevent and redress ill-treatment.”

Mr Lynch said that, “Now that the NIA has been tabled, the Commonwealth, state and territory governments should all prioritise ratification and implementation of the Optional Protocol. Any further delay in the prevention of ill-treatment has intolerable social and economic costs and is simply not an option.”

Parolee to challenge gag order

Farah Farouque | The Age | May 26, 2011

A PALM Island indigenous activist convicted of rioting following the death in custody of Cameron Doomadgee will mount a High Court challenge to a gag that prevents him from talking to the media.

As part of parole conditions, Lex Wotton is prohibited from ''speaking to and having any interaction whatsoever with the media'', nor can he attend public meetings on Palm Island without permission of Queensland Corrective Services.

When Mr Wotton sought permission from his parole officer to attend a juvenile justice forum in October last year to speak on youth alcohol and drug use in his community, he was denied permission, according to court documents obtained by The Age.

His challenge could have profound consequences as it will test the nature and scope of the right to freedom of political communication, participation and association under the constitution.

Phil Lynch, from the Human Rights Law Centre, which is backing the challenge to be heard in August, said the case strikes at the heart of what is meant by ''representative democracy''.

In two previous cases - one involving prisoner voting rights and the other, early closure of the Commonwealth electoral roll - the High Court has been developing the concept of representative democracy, although it is not explicitly stated in the constitution.

Mr Lynch said Mr Wotton's case raised ''fundamental civil and political rights''. ''It should be the case that prisoners and former prisoners are not denied any rights other than the right to liberty. To deny them other rights, such as freedom of speech, is to undermine their rehabilitation and re-integration.''

After a jury trial in 2008, four years after the Palm Island riot, Mr Wotton was found to have breached the Queensland Criminal Code and was sentenced to six years' jail. A district court judge determined that he was a leader of the riot, which caused millions of dollars in damage to Palm Island infrastructure.

In author Chloe Hooper's book The Tall Man, she described Mr Wotton's actions at the riot as drawing national attention to Cameron (Mulrunji) Doomadgee's death in custody, which had occurred a week earlier.

Following his release in July last year, Mr Wotton has worked at the Palm Island drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre.

His legal team, including Melbourne counsel Ron Merkel, QC, will seek to strike out a section of the Queensland Corrective Services Act 2006 and invalidate parts of his parole, including the media gag.

Mr Lynch said that under Queensland law, if the The Age spoke to Mr Wotton, the journalist could face charges and jail.