Human rights experts raise concerns over Australia youth justice systems

Independent human rights experts on Monday urged lawmakers in the Australian state of Queensland to vote against a bill introducing additional criminal offenses and imposing adult sentences on youth offenders.

UN Special Rapporteur on torture Alice Jill Edwards and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Albert K. Barume, voiced concerns regarding the Making Queensland Safer (Adult Crime, Adult Time) Amendment Bill 2025 in a letter addressed to Australian authorities, urging “members of the Queensland Parliament to vote against the bill.”

Introduced on April 1, 2025, the Making Queensland Safer (Adult Crime, Adult Time) Amendment Bill proposes expanding the list of offenses for which children can receive the same penalty as adults. In most Australian states, including Queensland, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is currently 10. There are 13 “adult crime, adult time” offenses under the current act, with the amendment bill suggesting the inclusion of an additional 20 offences, including arson, attempted murder, torture, rape, attempted rape, attempted robbery, and trafficking in dangerous drugs.

Asserting that this bill, among other proposed state laws, is “incompatible with basic child rights,” the experts emphasized “the various criminal legal systems operating in Australia appear to be in crisis nationwide.” They acknowledged, “Children are suffering undue harm to their safety and well-being, as well as to their educational and life prospects as a result of short-sighted approaches to youth criminality and detention.”

Advocating for an approach that centers the well-being and rehabilitation of young people and aligns with international law, they stated, “Juvenile facilities should prioritise education and rehabilitation to support childhood development. Criminal justice reform alone does not result in fewer anti-social or criminal behaviours.”

Furthermore, the experts noted,

If passed, the Queensland bill would result in additional adult penalties being applied to children for a wide range of offences. This would have an especially negative impact on the lives of indigenous children, who are already disproportionately represented in the criminal legal system.

According to a Queensland Family & Child Commission submission to the inquiry into the youth justice and incarceration system from October 2024, despite First Nations children aged 10-17 being approximately 8 percent of the population of Queensland, 55 percent of children in the statutory youth justice system are First Nations.

Organizations such as the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Queensland Human Rights Commission and the Human Rights Law Centre and Change the Record are among those that have made submissions on the bill, echoing the UN experts’ concerns, highlighting its contravention of human rights, and maintaining that it should not be passed.