On 24 August 2010, the Centre provided a Submission to the UN Committee against Torture setting out a number of issues which we consider the Committee should include in its List of Issues for Australia Prior to Reporting in respect of Australia’s compliance with the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
The Committee is likely to develop a List of Issues for Australia Prior to Reporting at its next session in November 2010.
In the Centre’s view, the Committee should seek for Australia to detail the human rights compatibility of domestic law, policy and practice in the following areas:
- migration law, policy and practice, particularly in relation to refugees and asylum seekers;
- prisoners’ rights and conditions of detention;
- policing, police use of force and police-related deaths;
- counter-terrorism law, policy and practice;
- violence against women;
- homelessness;
- aspects of involuntary treatment of people with mental illness or disability;
- the lack of domestic prosecution of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity; and
- gaps in Australian law, policy and practice with respect to exposing persons to the death penalty or torture or ill-treatment abroad, whether through extradition, the provision of mutual assistance in criminal matters, or the provision of police to police agency assistance.
