A Children’s Rights Assessment of Juvenile Detention in Australia

Anita Mackay has been researching the compliance of Australian closed environments with Australia’s international human rights law obligations since 2011. She has been an academic at La Trobe Law School (La Trobe University, Melbourne) since 2016 and is currently a Senior Lecturer. Dr Mackay’s 2020 book titled Towards Human Rights Compliance in Australian Prisons won the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC) biennial Christine M. Alder award in 2021. Prior to 2011, Dr Mackay worked as a senior legal officer in a variety of government policy areas, including family law and access to justice.

Introduction

PART I: Socio-Legal context for youth detention in Australia

1. Detention of children in Australia: hyperincarceration and over-representation

2. Australia’s international human rights law obligations

3. Legal and policy framework for youth detention in Australia

4. Monitoring and oversight of youth detention in Australia

PART II: Children’s rights violations in youth detention in Australia

5. Low minimum age of criminal responsibility

6. Failure to separate children from adults

7. Degrading treatment / failure to treat children humanely

8. Insufficient health services, standard of living, and connections with family, community, and culture

PART III: Strategies for reform

9. Towards children’s-rights compliance