DCI-Australia and the National Children’s and Youth Law Centre have made a joint submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee Inquiry
Into Mandatory Sentencing.
The United Nations Committee on the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the International Commission of Jurists, Amnesty International and Defence for Children
International are just some of the international organisations which have been critical of the human rights implications of mandatory sentencing.
Our comprehensive submission:
examines the legal and social consequences of mandatory sentencing legislation in Western Australia and the
Northern Territory. In particularly focuses on the impact of the sentencing systems on young people, both those defined as juveniles, and those offenders aged between 18-25 and the implications
for Indigenous young people within these age groups.
highlights Australia’s international human rights obligations to address the issues relating to
mandatory sentencing, and explains how and why the Commonwealth Parliament and the Federal Government can act to bring an end to the fundamental breaches of those obligations caused by existing
mandatory sentencing laws.
is peppered with individual case studies which portray in real terms, the inflexibility and injustice which
mandatory sentencing produces. These have been supplied by the Alice Springs Youth Accommodation and Support Service, the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, the Katherine
Regional Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, the Northern Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, and the Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission.
contends that the standing of Australia as a nation in international human rights forums has been called
into question as a result of mandatory sentencing and that the issue can no longer be seen as purely a matter for Western Australia or the Northern Territory.
finds that Federal legislative action should be taken in circumstances where Western Australia and the
Northern Territory do not repeal their mandatory sentencing statutes and that the Human Rights (Mandatory Sentencing of Juvenile Offenders) Bill is one appropriate vehicle by which this can be
achieved.
The authors of the submission are:
Mr. Lou Schetzer, Director of the National Children’s and Youth Law Centre l.schetzer@unsw.edu.au
and
Mr. Danny Sandor, President of the Australian Section of Defence for Children International
