jul 25, 2002 - UN Report on Mandatory Detention Released

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The report argued that the policy contravened the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which outlaws arbitrary detention and the denial of access to legal review of incarceration; and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits detention of children except as a last resort. Bhagwati reported that children were suffering mentally and physically, and that many were “traumatised and led to harm themselves in utter despair.” Then Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, Attorney-General Daryl Williams and Immigration Minister Ruddock issued a joint statement attacking this report as “emotive”, “fundamentally flawed” and lacking objectivity.

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