Mandatory detention laws in Australia

Mandatory

detention laws in Australia

Submission by the Human Rights

and Equal Opportunity Commission to the inquiry by the Senate Legal and

Constitutional Legislation Committee into the Human Rights (Mandatory

Sentencing of Juvenile Offenders) Bill 1999

Mandatory detention

laws were enacted in Western Australia and the Northern Territory in 1996

and 1997 respectively. Essentially these laws require courts to impose

minimum sentences of detention or imprisonment for people convicted of

certain offences. They effectively remove judicial discretion in relation

to those offences.

The Human Rights

(Mandatory Sentencing of Juvenile Offenders) Bill, presented to the Federal

Parliament, aims to override the WA and NT legislation. The Commission's

submission supports the Bill and details

• how mandatory

  detention violates children's rights at international law and

• how international

  law supports and in some cases requires the implementation of alternatives

  to detention.

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Last

updated 2 December 2001.