Australian state of Queensland suspends human rights law to lock up children

The rate of incarceration for Indigenous children in Queensland is 33 times the rate of non-Indigenous children. Maggie Munn, a Gunggari person and National Director of First Nations justice advocacy group Change the Record, says the move to hold children as young as 10 in adult watch houses was “fundamentally cruel and wrong”.

“It’s incredibly worrying that the Queensland government for the second time this year has suspended human rights laws to punish children, the majority of whom are First Nations kids. What does that say about the human rights our government values?” Munn said.

Queensland has extremely high rates of children in detention being held on remand, with 90 percent of imprisoned children and young people were awaiting trial. So these are children who have not been convicted of an offence.