Key Points
- The United Nations subcommittee said "obstructions" have forced it to suspend its tour of Australian prisons.
- It says experienced the most resistance in Queensland and NSW.
Human rights groups have condemned the NSW and Queensland state governments for not cooperating with the United Nations' anti-torture body, which in turn caused it to suspend its tour of Australian prisons.
The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) said it encountered "obstructions" while trying to under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT), to which Australia is a party.
Sophie McNeill from Human Rights Watch (HRW) told SBS News that the situation is "deeply embarrassing".
"It wasn't resolved, and now really humiliating that they've had to leave because Australia couldn't comply with what they needed for their visit," she said.
'Deep concern'
Ms McNeill said HRW has concerns with how detained people in Australia are treated, particularly children and people with disability.
"Over over the past decade, there have been so many issues that have raised deep concern, whether it is prolonged solitary confinement of prisoners with disabilities, or the treatment of people in our immigration detention centres," she said.
"We've seen horrific allegations come out in regards to the treatment of children in Don Dale in the Northern Territory. And right now Western Australia, there's a heap of concern about the conditions of children being kept in a maximum security adult prison in Casuarina."
Tim O'Connor from Amnesty International Australia said the human rights group submitted their concerns about Indigenous deaths in custody to the SPT before their visit.
"In Queensland, we have a terrible situation of deaths in custody where hundreds of Indigenous people have died in police custody," he said.
He also said conditions in offshore detention facilities can amount to "torture".
"These relate to situations in immigration detention, where what we found in places like Nauru and Papua New Guinea amounts to torture."
Why was the visit suspended?
The SPT said it was restricted from accessing several areas where people are detained and was not given all requested documentation.
The body said its visit, which started on 16 October and was set to run until 27 October, had been "compromised by such an extent that they had no other option but to suspend it".
Aisha Shujune Muhammad, head of the four-member delegation, said it was a "clear breach by Australia of its obligations under OPCAT".
"State parties have an obligation to both receive the SPT in their territory and allow it to exercise its mandate in full, as reflected in Articles 12 and 14,” she said in a statement.
Ms Muhammad said the body experienced the most resistance in Queensland and NSW.
“It is deeply regrettable that the limited understanding of the SPT’s mandate and the lack of co-operation stemming from internal disagreements, especially with respect to the States of Queensland and New South Wales, has compelled us to take this drastic measure," she said.
“This is not a decision that the SPT has taken lightly.”
States that ratify the OPCAT give the SPT the right to visit their places of detention and examine the treatment of people held there.
Ms Muhammad said the visits do not amount to an investigation or inspection, but provide the opportunity to offer confidential recommendations "on establishing effective safeguards against the risk of torture and ill-treatment in places of deprivation of liberty."
She said it was "concerning" that four years after ratifying the protocol, Australia appeared "to have done little to ensure consistent implementation of OPCAT obligations."
Alleged breaches condemned 'in strongest possible terms'
More than 70 leading organisations and individuals have signed , led by Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR), condemning the NSW and Queensland governments for their alleged breaches against the SPT.
"OPCAT is designed to protect the fundamental human rights of people detained in places including, but not limited to, prisons, juvenile detention centres, immigration detention centres, hospitals, mental health facilities, aged care facilities and facilities for people with disability," the statement reads.
"The ability to carry out unannounced visits to detention facilities, conduct private interviews with people deprived of their liberty and review documentation is an essential element of the framework established under OPCAT.
"We therefore condemn in the strongest possible terms decisions that necessarily serve to obstruct or impede the preventive mandate of the SPT which is focused on a proactive approach to preventing the torture and ill-treatment of vulnerable adults and children."
Parties who signed the statement include the University of NSW, the Human Rights Law Centre, and Save the Children.
Steven Caruana, from the OPCAT Network, told SBS News the failure came down to a dispute over a lack of funding from the Commonwealth government to the NSW and Queensland governments to implement the recommendations of OPCAT.
"They've delayed their progress on OPCAT significantly over the last four or five years, because they have been holding out waiting for the Commonwealth to come to the table and fund it," he said.
"They basically are saying that they're not going to do anything about it.
"They're not going to allow the visits to occur."
The Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, Elaine Pearson, wrote on Twitter it was "appalling" the visit had to be suspended.
NSW points finger at federal government
Corrections Minister Geoff Lee told a budget estimates hearing on Monday the NSW government supported the subcommittee's objectives.
Asked whether he was concerned the state's facilities would not satisfy UN inspectors, Mr Lee said there were other issues - regarding funding and security - the state needed to sort out with the federal government.
He said conditions at NSW prisons met "and many times often exceeded those of other countries."
Senior minister David Elliott, a former corrections minister, said he made sure past premiers did not approve the UN inspections.
"I'm not going to have UN inspectors from Iran and China and Cuba come into NSW jails and tell us that we're doing things wrong," he told Sydney radio station 2GB on Monday.
Mr Elliott said the federal government encouraged the inspections, but was protected from having to open immigration detention centres or defence force correctional facilities, unlike state prisons.
Mr Lee also apportioned blame federally.
"The federal government did sign us up, and they said that they would consult and work with us, now we haven't reached that point," he said.
The SPT says it expects Australia to provide "appropriate assurances" so that it can resume the trip.
SBS News has contacted the ministers for corrections in NSW and Queensland, and the federal attorney-general's office, for comment.
- With AAP.
