Australia’s human rights commissioner, Lorraine Finlay, has questioned why the New South Wales government was blocking officials from the UN inspecting its jails if it was confident about meeting minimum standards.
She said the NSW move could jeopardise promises made by Australia as part of the UN’s Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (Opcat) that was ratified by the federal government under former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2017.
Inspectors from the UN subcommittee on prevention of torture arrived in Australia this week with plans to conduct surprise visits on state, territory and commonwealth prison facilities over 12 days.
The federal government recently contacted the NSW government seeking cooperation over the visits, finding all other states were willing to comply.
Guardian Australia understands the Perrottet government plans to refuse the inspectors entry into jails until a funding agreement is in place with the federal government that sets out who pays for any changes recommended in any subsequent report.
It’s also understood the NSW government had an issue with the surprise nature of the visits.
Finlay said she was “very concerned”.
“Blocking their visit not only raises questions about whether places of detention in NSW meet the minimum Opcat standards, but also means that Australia is failing to live up to the promises it made to the world when it signed and ratified Opcat,” Finlay said.
“If states are confident that they are meeting minimum standards, they should have no hesitation in cooperation with the UN delegation.
“It means Australia will not be meeting the promises that we made when we signed Opcat. When we make promises to the world, it is important that we keep our word.”
Finlay said all levels of government needed to comply with the visits to ensure the UN could “assess first-hand the conditions of detention in Australia and get an accurate understanding of the extent to which people deprived of their liberty in Australia are treated with dignity”.
The federal attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said he hoped NSW would capitulate.
“The commonwealth hopes NSW will facilitate a visit in the same way every other state and territory is doing,” a spokesperson said on his behalf, after Dreyfus on Monday thanked all other jurisdictions by name for their participation.
Dreyfus also noted that when the federal government ratified the protocol almost five years ago, there were no state or territory objections.
The agreement was signed in the wake of the royal commission into juvenile detention in the Northern Territory, sparked by revelations of abuses at the Don Dale youth detention centre.
“Australia and the subcommittee have a shared commitment to ensuring people who are held in places of detention are treated with dignity and are not subject to degrading treatment or punishment,” Dreyfus said.
“I would like to thank the governments of Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT for their cooperative approach to facilitating visits by the delegation.”
Dreyfus said the inspections would complement the pre-existing arrangements across Australian prison and detention facilities to be inspected and monitored.
