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Australia fails human rights test, rejects UN inspectors from prisons

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The decision at the state level puts Australia in breach of the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture.

The Queanbeyan Court House (Image: Bidgee/Wikimedia)
The Queanbeyan Court House (Image: Bidgee/Wikimedia)

Australia is failing to meet its obligations under a United Nations human rights convention that allows for random visits by UN inspectors to places of detention.

A long-running funding deadlock between the federal government and the states has come to a head this week, with New South Wales blocking a group of visiting UN experts from inspecting its prisons to ensure no torture is occurring. The Queensland government has prevented the same group from accessing some of its mental health facilities.

Australia has ratified a 2017 agreement that gives the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) unfettered access to places of detention and to interview the people held there in order to prevent human rights abuses.

Read more about the rejection of UN inspectors.

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