Australia violated human rights treaty with Nauru detainees, UN committee find Friday 10 January 2025
Australia has used “offshore processing” for asylum seekers attempting to read Australia by boat since 2013. (Immigration Department)
In short:
A UN committee has found that Australia violated a human rights treaty by detaining a group of asylum seekers, including minors, on Nauru even after they were granted refugee status.
The UN has asked the government to provide compensation to the victims and to ensure similar violations do not recur.
What’s next?
The federal government is yet to comment on the findings.
A UN committee has found that Australia violated a human rights treaty by detaining a group of asylum seekers, including minors, on Nauru even after they were granted refugee status.
abc.net.au/news/australia-violates-human-rights-treaty-with-nauru-detention-un/104802684
Under Australia’s immigration policies, those attempting to reach the country by boat have been sent to detention centres including Nauru for so-called “offshore processing” since 2013.
Such facilities have previously drawn scrutiny from rights groups. The UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors the legally binding 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and was asked to consider a complaint by a group of refugees, found that Australia had violated two provisions of the treaty: one on arbitrary detention and one protecting the right to challenge their detention in court.
The UN found the Nauru facility counted as being within Australia’s jurisdiction back in 2016. (ABC TV)
It asked the government to provide compensation to the victims and to ensure similar violations do not recur.
“The outsourcing of operations does not absolve states of accountability,” Committee member Mahjoub El Haiba said.
“Offshore detention facilities are not human rights-free zones for the state party, which remains bound by the provisions of the covenant.”
The Department of Home Affairs said in a statement the federal government’s position had always been that “Australia does not exercise effective control over regional processing centres”.
“Nauru as a sovereign state continues to exercise jurisdiction over the regional processing arrangements (and individuals subject to those arrangements) within their territory.”
Photo shows A group of Chinese men sitting on the boat.
A growing number of people are trying to leave China — some risking their lives at sea or in the jungle — as the country’s political and economic future remains uncertain.
The department spokesperson said Australia’s international obligations did not apply to transferees “outside of Australia’s territory or its effective control”.
The UN committee finding follows a 2016 petition filed with it by a group of 24 asylum seekers from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar who were intercepted while trying to reach Australia by boat in 2013, when they were aged between 14 and 17 years old.
The group, who were unaccompanied and transferred to Nauru from Christmas Island in 2014, were held in the overcrowded Regional Processing Centre, where they lacked access to sufficient water and health care, the UN statement said.
Nearly all the minors suffered a deterioration in wellbeing there, including weight loss, self-harm, kidney problems and insomnia, it said.
They remained in detention in Nauru even after all but one of the group were granted refugee status, the statement said.
It did not specify the total duration of their detention, nor did it give information on their identity or current whereabouts.
Australia argued that there was no proof that the alleged violations had occurred within its jurisdiction, according to the UN statement.
However, the committee found that the Nauru facility counted as being within Australia’s jurisdiction, citing the country’s role in constructing and financing it.
In a second case filed to the same committee, it found that an Iranian refugee who had been held in Nauru had also been subject to arbitrary detention, the statement said.
Reuters/ABC