Case 86: Supreme Court finds that children held in maximum security prison were deprived of their human rights
Human Rights Law Centre press conference following Supreme Court case.
After riot damage to a youth justice centre, the Victorian Government set up a new youth justice centre in a unit in the maximum security adult Barwon Prison and started transferring children as young as 15 there. The conditions in the unit were extremely harsh and children were subjected to extended solitary confinement, regular handcuffing and denied proper education. A number of Aboriginal children took legal action using the Charter and other laws to challenge their transfer to the prison. In response, the Victorian Government agreed to remove all Aboriginal children from the adult prison. A number of non-Indigenous children then brought a similar legal action challenging the decision to set up the unit in the adult prison and transfer children there. The Supreme Court and then the Court of Appeal ruled that the decision was unlawful because the Minister failed to properly consider the childrens’ human rights under the Charter, including the right to humane treatment and the right to protection of children as is in their best interests. When the Minister then made a fresh decision that kept the children in the adult prison, certain children brought a final challenge using the Charter and other laws. The Supreme Court again ruled that the government’s actions breached the childrens’ rights to humane treatment in detention and protection as is in their best interests. The Court ordered that the Minister stop detaining the children at the prison and all children were transferred back into existing youth justice centres. The Court also ruled that a decision approving the use of capsicum spray in the unit in the adult prison was unlawful.
Source: Human Rights Law Centre and Certain Children v Minister for Families and Children [2017] VSC 251. See our case summary here: https://www.hrlc.org.au/human-rightscase-summaries/2017/6/30/victorian-supreme-court-findsestablishment-of-youth-justice-centre-at-barwon-adult-prisoncontrary-to-human-rights-and-unlawful