In an article in the Australian Human Rights Law Center Bulletin “Rights Agenda” the APT calls on Australian State and Territory Attorney-Generals to pass the relevant laws to enable Australia to swiftly ratify the OPCAT.
Under the headline "If I Were Attorney-General…" APT's Rebecca Minty writes:
"If I were the Commonwealth Attorney-General in Australia today, a sad reality is that reports would appear on my desk, with alarming regularity, about ill-treatment in places of detention in Australia and areas under the control of the Australian government. One day it might be a report on the impact on asylum seekers and refugees of immigration detention in remote and offshore locations. The next might relate to the use of seclusion in prisons (including to “manage” people with a mental illness), the misuse of tasers by the police, or another aboriginal death in custody. Although detaining authorities in Australia do a lot of things right that don’t get public attention, when mistakes are made, or when appropriate systems are not in place or break down, the consequences can be tragic and have enduring impacts on detainees and the community."