The United Nations (UN) calls for “urgent national action” regarding Australia’s treatment of Indigenous children in the criminal justice system.

The UN has expressed “grave concerns” about the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in criminal detention. This is not the first time this has happened—Australia was criticised for the same issue by the UN in 2021, 2017, 2015 and more.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination noted that children under 14 were being held in detention at unprecedented rates, with Indigenous children making up 65% of the under-18 prison population despite being only 6.5% of the child population nationwide. Many of these children are being held on remand, meaning they haven’t been convicted or sentenced, with factors leading to this overrepresentation including racial profiling and over-policing.

“Our governments are allowing children as young as 10 years old - especially First Nations children - to be subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment in detention. These approaches are condemning First Nations children to a lifetime of abuse, deprivation and disadvantage. It also does nothing to “close the gap”, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss said.

The first official Closing the Gap policy was implemented in 2008, which included a measurement of young First Nations people in the justice system, with a target of reducing young people in detention by at least 30% by 2031.

In 2024-5, the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in detention was 25.7 per 10,000 young people, whereas in the general population it was 1.1 per 10,000 young people. This target is not on track to be met. In the Northern Territory, Aboriginal children make up 96.5% of all child detainees, yet only make up about 20 per cent of the territory’s population

The actions that the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is calling for include raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 across the country, setting national standards of treatment in the child justice system and detention, and legislating that children only be detained as a last resort.

An overwhelming body of evidence exists in raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14, from experts, academics, advocates, the UN, the Yoorrook Justice Commission and even government-commissioned reports.

Three states have changed the age of criminal responsibility in recent years; Victoria raised it from 10 to 12 in 2025 but scrapped a commitment to raise it to 14. In the ACT, the age of criminal responsibility is 14. In contrast, in its first week in government, the NT Country Liberal Party lowered the age to 10 as a part of its ‘law and order’ campaign.

Across the country, governments are campaigning on ‘law and order’, including ‘adult crime, adult time’ laws in Queensland and Victoria, which have been widely condemned. In 2025, the NT reinstated the use of spit hoods on children, which are banned in every other state, and countless reports have shown they are dangerous and have been associated with multiple deaths in custody.

The Northern Territory Children’s Commissioner Shahleena Musk said this decision went against the advice of international experts. Use of spit hoods makes children more traumatised which leads to reoffending rates being higher, Mindy Sotiri, the Justice Reform Initiative’s executive director, told the ABC. Amnesty International labels spit hoods as torture.

Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner, Giridharan Sivaraman said in a media release that this “should be a wake-up call for Australia. The overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in detention is a result of racial discrimination that is baked into our policing and justice systems.”

The National Children’s Commissioner, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Social Justice Commissioner and the Race Discrimination Commissioner have all called on federal and state governments to act by implementing the recommendations of the ‘Help Way Earlier!’ report and endorsing the National Anti-Racism Framework and implementing its recommendations for the justice sector.

Neither the federal nor state governments have responded to the Australian Human Rights Commission's recommendations.

Image source: Human Rights Law Centre