The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended the laws of member states be changed to ensure that children under the age of 16 can't legally be imprisoned.
It also recommended governments raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 - an increase from its previous position of 12 years old.
The new recommendations come two weeks after 12-year-old Indigenous boy Dujuan Hoosan pleaded with the UN Human Rights Council to stop Australia incarcerating young children.
“Right around Australia, each state and territory has set the minimum age of responsibility at 10, so 10 years of age is the age which a child can be arrested, charged with an offence, hauled before a court, or locked away in a youth prison,” senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, Shahleena Musk said.
The UN’s Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended governments raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14. Source: Supplied (Amnesty International)
“This age is really out of step with international standards, and lags behind the rest of the world, where the median age is around 14."
Ms Musk said around 600 children aged 10 to 13 are incarcerated in Australia each year.
“We know that the majority of the children are really vulnerable young kids, children who are either known to the child protection system or subject to protection orders, and who have come from experiences of disadvantage and trauma,” she said.
“We are really harming these children by early contact with the justice system, and by removing them from the protective factors that they find within their families and within in their communities.”
Paediatrician and Adolescent Physician Dr Mick Creati said the most important influences on a child’s development as they transition into adulthood were a connection with community, culture, family and education, and positive peer experiences.
Posters outside a hearing of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory. Source: AAP
“If we remove children from that positive influence, we set them on a trajectory which makes them more likely to stay in the criminal justice system,” the senior fellow with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians said.
“We know that the younger children get in touch with the justice system, the more likely they are to stay in the justice system."
Dr Creati said focusing on detention, as opposed to intervention, has adverse lifelong impacts.
“We know that the mental health impacts in terms of trauma and depression are worse, and we know that actually has intergenerational effects on their children in the long-term,” he said.
“We know that some of the practices in the justice system further traumatise children, in particular, the use of isolation for managing the risk of self-harm is further damaging.
“We actually do support and acknowledge that the justice system now recognises the risk of self-harm in custody, but that we don't think the response is appropriate.”
Co-chair of National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Legal Services Cheryl Axleby said Australia's laws disproportionately affect Indigenous children, with Indigenous kids consistently incarcerated at much higher rates than their non-Indigenous counterparts.
"This is really the impact of colonisation, and the intergenerational impact of the removal of children from families, that we're seeing such a significant number of our people in the justice system," she said.
Joanne Voller, the mother of Dylan, whose treatment in NT youth detention sparked a royal commission, at a protest in Sydney in 2016 Source: AAP
Ms Axleby said the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory identified that the vast majority of children who are dealt with outside of the formal criminal justice system don't re-offend.
“The youth justice system really is emulating the adult prison system,” she said.
“And my personal thoughts on this and experience that I have seen is that we start institutionalising children from a very young age into the criminal justice system, and evidence shows that once they are in the system, it is very hard for children to get out of the system.”
DrCreati said Australia's rules on criminal responsibility were not consistent with medical evidence.
"We know that the part of the brain that controls impulsivity, which is the ability to foresee your actions and recognise the consequences, is not fully developed until the age of 25, and we know even as adults we are not fully in control of our impulses, otherwise supermarkets would not put chocolates next to the cash register," he said.
Shahleena Musk said as a member of the UN Human Rights Council, Australia should adhere to the recommendations of UN experts.
"These guidelines have come out at a time when there has been significant concern raised across the world around governments regressing when it comes to protecting and promoting child rights, and, in particular, trends relating to the minimum age of criminal responsibility, and the persistent use of deprivation of liberty,” she said.
If someone you know under the age of 25 needs support, they can contact Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800.
