Covering events from January - December 2003

National security was invoked to justify the erosion of human rights safeguards in draft laws on "antiterrorism" measures and refugee rights. Domestic violence against Aboriginal women and children and indefinite detention of child asylum-seekers were prominent themes in the domestic human rights debate.

Background

Australia took over the vice-chair at the UN Commission on Human Rights, but failed to take a strong stand on fair trial and death penalty issues. National security dominated foreign policy and aspects of domestic policy. Australia led a military-backed regional intervention in the Solomon Islands and participated in the war against Iraq.

In March, new legislation was proposed to reduce the powers of the national Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), including its freedom to seek leave to intervene in legal proceedings on international human rights concerns.

'Anti-terrorism' legislation

In June, a new law gave the authorities powers to detain people suspected of having information about "terrorist" offences for seven days before being brought before a court. There was no requirement that relatives be informed of the whereabouts of detainees during this time. In November, newly appointed Attorney-General Philip Ruddock moved to extend these powers further.

Violence against women

According to a 20-year study conducted by Australian universities, one in four women aged between 18 and 23 reported some experience of domestic violence. In October, public concern about even higher rates of indigenous victims of domestic violence led the Prime Minister to initiate a consultation process with Aboriginal women's leaders.

  • In February, a Northern Territory coroner's inquest report criticized police for releasing an Aboriginal victim of domestic violence into the care of her de facto husband in October 2001. The woman died from her injuries after the husband beat her again as soon as the officers had left.

Indigenous social justice

In October, the Prime Minister publicly accepted that policies on indigenous social welfare were failing. That month, a Senate inquiry found that reconciliation with Aborigines was "off the track", mainly as a result of inadequate measures to boost their enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. The inquiry reported that life expectancy for Aborigines was on average 20 years less than for other Australians and that Aborigines were 15 times more likely to be imprisoned. Reports by the Australian Institute of Criminology and the HREOC found that for indigenous women, life expectancy was declining while imprisonment rates had increased by 262 per cent during the 1990s. HREOC's Indigenous Social Justice Commissioner said he felt "a mounting sense of despair and urgency among Indigenous people and communities relating to [ ... ] violence, abuse, unemployment, poor health, contact with criminal law processes, removal of children through care and protection and so on."

Deaths in custody

Deaths in custody of indigenous and non-indigenous prisoners fell to the lowest level for 10 years, with the exception of Western Australia. In April, the Western Australia government directed the state's independent prison inspector to review its largest prison because of concerns over deaths in custody, including suicides by teenage Aboriginal prisoners awaiting trial.

In February, the family of Stephen Wardle, who died in 1988 aged 18 in a police cell in disputed circumstances, accepted an apology by a police officer during a Royal Commission inquiry into the Western Australia Police Service which investigated Stephen Wardle's death.

Legal proceedings on child asylum-seekers

In August, the Family Court of Australia ordered the release of five Pakistani child asylum-seekers from Baxter Detention Centre on the grounds that their detention was harmful. They had been in detention since January 2001. An appeal by the government was due to be heard in February 2004. The decision did not affect another 108 asylum-seeker children detained on Nauru under agreements with the Australian authorities, because the transfer to Nauru removed them from Australian jurisdiction.

Refugees

In July, the government announced the departure of the last detainee from its immigration detention centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, run by the International Organization for Migration on behalf of the Australian government. However, Aladdin Sisalem remained detained on his own on Manus by the end of the year. A similar detention centre on Nauru remained open.

  • In August, almost 30 organizations joined AI Australia in campaigning for nine women and 14 children held on Nauru to be reunited with their husbands and fathers, already recognized as refugees in Australia.
  • In November, the UN Human Rights Committee urged the release from immigration detention of Roqia Bakhtiyari and found that she and her children, released by the Family Court after 32 months' detention (see above), had been arbitrarily detained. The Committee said Australia was under an obligation to pay compensation to her and to the children, who "suffered demonstrable, documented and ongoing adverse effects of detention."


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