BY SARAH STEPHEN
Human rights commissioner Sev Ozdowski announced on November 28 that he would conduct an inquiry into the effect of immigration detention on children, in particular investigating whether Australia's detention practices are in breach of its international obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Ozdowski explained that he had received a number of complaints about the effect of detention on children's mental and physical health, saying "I hear about people being put in isolation cells and police lock-ups".
He said the "most challenging" case he came across was that of an eight-year-old Afghan boy who was "wandering for half a year without a proper guardian and without proper care" in the Woomera detention centre.
Asked if the system needed an overhaul, he said "If you are asking me personally, very much so. I believe that detention is bad for children."
The investigation, which will begin early next year, will involve visits to detention centres, including those on Christmas and Cocos Islands, as well as taking submissions and holding public hearings around the country. The inquiry will have the power to subpoena witnesses and documents. It will report to federal parliament in November 2002.
There are 582 children between the ages of eight and 18 in Australia's detention centres, most from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. Fifty-three are unaccompanied. Half of all children detained and 48 of the children without their parents are held in the Woomera detention centre in South Australia, widely identified as having the worst conditions of all the centres.
Defending the practice of detaining children, a spokesperson for immigration minister Philip Ruddock said, "We are not happy with children in detention, but we are not the ones that have brought them here to Australia".
The minister himself claimed "children of asylum seekers were often sent solo into Australian waters so the government would be forced to accept their families" and said the children were detained to see if they "pose risks to the Australian community".
Weighing into the discussion on November 29, Prime Minister John Howard said the mandatory detention of asylum seekers — including children — would not be modified, regardless of any recommendations brought down by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
Amnesty International has called for the terms of reference to be widened to consider the arbitrary nature of detention, given that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that detention should be used only as a last resort.
Former director of the Office of Children's Rights Commission in London, Moira Rayner, and Refugee Council of Australia president David Bitel, are calling for the inquiry to be broadened to review conditions for those held in Australian-funded Pacific camps.
Meanwhile, in a setback for refugee rights advocates, the High Court on November 27 threw out a request for a final appeal against the finding that 433 Afghan asylum seekers were not illegally detained on the Tampa. Solicitor Eric Vadarlis had been campaigning for an appeal since the decision of the full Federal Court's two-to-one ruling against the asylum seekers in September.
From Green Left Weekly, December 5, 2001.
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