Case 92: Human rights focus in advocating for people in prison during the COVID-19 pandemic

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The human rights of people in prison were significantly affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. People were confined to their cells for extended hours, in-person visits were cancelled or postponed, there was limited access to telephones and video conferencing and medication was not received at the right time or in the correct dosage. Caxton Legal Centre used the Queensland Human Rights Act to advocate with the Queensland Corrective Services and Queensland Health to gain its clients access to telephone conferencing for legal services. Caxton Legal also used the Human Rights Act to argue that a number of the quarantining measures implemented at the prisons breached fundamental human rights, including the protection of families and children, right to access health services and protection from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Source: The First Annual Report on the Operation of Queensland’s Human Rights Act 2019-20, p. 111