A United Nations torture monitoring agency terminated its visit to Australia in what has been called a disappointing and “extraordinary step”.
The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) was due to visit in October to resume inspection of Australia’s detention facilities which was suspended last year after New South Wales and Queensland blocked access to some facilities.
On Monday, SPT, which has independent human rights experts, said it requested several assurances in order to resume its visit but it could not decide on a “reasonable timeframe” to resume its visit due to the absence of some guarantees.
“Despite the good cooperation the subcommittee has with the Australian federal authorities following our initial mission, there is no alternative but to terminate the visit as the issue of unrestricted access to all places of deprivation of liberty in two states has not yet been resolved,” SPT chairperson Suzanne Jabbour said in a statement.
Canberra became a signatory to the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (Opcat), an optional protocol against torture and degrading treatment, which allows for SPT to visit prisons, police stations, and other detention centres unannounced.
The Opcat is designed to protect the rights, health, and safety of people who live in any kind of detention such as in prisons, youth detention centres, immigration detention, hospital, aged care and disability facilities.
In October 2022, New South Wales, the country’s most populous state, blocked the panel from visiting its prisons, saying the state maintained high standards at its jails and Australia was a sovereign country.
The UN delegation was also blocked from making visits to correctional facilities in Queensland state, prompting it to suspend its 12-day visit.
Responding to the UN body’s decision, the Australian Human Rights Commission said it was an “extraordinary step”.
“This decision by the UN subcommittee is disappointing but not undeserved. Australia has had years to meet our Opcat obligations, but we have failed to deliver on our treaty promises,” said Australia’s human rights commissioner Lorraine Finlay.
“Australian governments must take this as a wake-up call and urgently prioritise implementation of their responsibilities under Opcat to implement systems of oversight for all places of detention.”
The New South Wales government has brushed off blame over the decision, saying the federal government failed to provide funding to assure compliance with Opcat.
The corrections minister of NSW, Geoff Lee, continued to defend the state’s prisons, saying they are “not opposed, in principle” to the inspections. But they have unresolved and “ongoing operational, security and funding issues” with the federal government.
“These issues have been raised with the commonwealth on a number of occasions, including in 2020 and again in recent months,” he said.
Australia’s federal attorney general Mark Dreyfuss said the government deeply regretted SPT’s decision. But added that it doesn’t reflect the country’s “commitment to protecting and promoting human rights”.
He mentioned that SPT visits in all other Australian states had been successful.
Australian Human Rights Commission president Rosalind Croucher said “this decision by the UN SPT reflects poorly on our country’s commitment to protecting the human rights of people in detention and is detrimental to Australia’s international standing”.
It came one month after Canberra missed its extended deadline to implement Opcat which was on 20 January, bringing the country to the Opcat non-compliance list.
“This outcome could severely damage Australia’s reputation as a leading advocate for a rules-based international system,” Ms Croucher said, noting the missed deadline.
Australia has become the only second country after Rwanda to have had a visit cancelled by SPT.
