This racial discrimination complaint, made to the United Nations, highlights Australia's' discriminatory youth justice systems and how they seriously violate the human rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The submission requests that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Committee) review the state of Australia’s youth justice laws, policy and state agency conduct under the Committee’s Early Warning and Urgent Action procedure. 

Across Australia, governments are incarcerating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children at disproportionately high rates compared to non-Indigenous children. The laws, policies and government inaction contributing to this incarceration crisis are incompatible with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Convention) and Australia’s other international human rights law obligations, including under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

The complaint documents a significant and persistent pattern of racial discrimination against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children across Australia. The complaint calls on the Committee to:

• action the complaint without delay
• find that the Commonwealth Government of Australia is in breach of the Convention
• urge the Government to take immediate and proactive steps to protect and promote the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.