World Vision Welcomes Don Dale Royal Commission Report

Friday, November 17, 2017

International humanitarian agency World Vision welcomes the findings and recommendations of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory.

World Vision endorses the commission’s key findings including the recommendation that the age of criminal responsibility be raised from 10 to 12; that no child under

14 should be sentenced to detention, except in the most serious cases; and calls for long-term strategies, early intervention and community engagement, which is crucial to the success of any program affecting Indigenous people.

World Vision chief executive Claire Rogers said the child-focused agency was heartbroken and appalled by the scenes of children in Australia being abused in detention centres.

“We welcome the key findings of the report and call for them to be implemented quickly,” Ms Rogers said. “But we must also not lose sight of the big picture – the underlying issues that disadvantage Indigenous people across Australia.

“As a nation, we should be ashamed of the numbers of Aboriginal children in detention, just as we should also be ashamed that Aboriginal people are not recognised in the Constitution.”

Welcoming the announcement of a royal commission last year, Policy and Advocacy director Susan Anderson said the abuse of children in detention, revealed by ABC’s Four Corners program, beggared belief and the use of tear gas and hoods at the Don Dale detention centre “were clear and gut-wrenching human rights violations”.

“As a child-focused organisation that works in some of the most troubled nations on Earth, we are appalled that child abuse of this magnitude can occur in Australia,” she said. 

Ms Anderson said the treatment of children at Don Dale contravened many of Australia’s obligations under international law and in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states, under article 37, that:

- “No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

- “Every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age.”

 

Contact: Stuart Rintoul 0407 241 492

Media Releases, Aboriginal, Children's Rights

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