Page 1199 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 March 2013
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commonwealth and the states and territories. Consistent with the protocol, it defines “places of detention” for the purpose of UN subcommittee visits, and sets out the relationship between the bill and other laws in the territory. It provides for arrangements for UN subcommittee visits, including establishment of ministerial arrangements to facilitate such visits, and sets out the duties of detaining authorities and the responsible minister.
Australia will be permitted to object to the UN subcommittee visiting a place of detention if urgent and compelling grounds of national defence, public safety, natural disaster or serious disorder warrant the temporary delay of the visit. The scope of the information that must be provided to the UN subcommittee is limited to “relevant information … for evaluating the needs and measures that should be adopted to strengthen, if necessary, the protection of people deprived of their liberty against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. In addition, under clause 14, the UN subcommittee is not entitled to access records held by a health practitioner, a lawyer or any other professional person who is under an obligation not to disclose information held in a record. This exclusion applies to information about a person whether they are currently or have been a detainee. Under its guidelines in relation to visits, the UN subcommittee has strict confidentiality requirements and is not permitted to publish personal data without the express consent of the person concerned.
In addition to access to information, the UN subcommittee may ask to interview detainees and other relevant people. Under this bill, the ACT will be obliged to provide reasonable assistance to the subcommittee to conduct an interview with a detainee or anyone else without witnesses. This does not mean that a person being interviewed cannot be accompanied by an interpreter or support person of their choice. The requirement to facilitate interviews without witnesses is to ensure that interviewees have an opportunity to provide information to the United Nations subcommittee without fear of reprisal or any undue pressure from a representative of the detaining authority being present. For the same reason the bill also protects against action for giving information and against reprisal for disclosing information. These provisions are necessary to allow the UN subcommittee to perform its mandate without detainees, their families and staff in detention centres being fearful of the consequences of speaking to the subcommittee.
As the date for Australia’s ratification date of OPCAT is yet to be confirmed, clause 2 of the bill provides that the act commences on a day to be fixed by the minister but not less than 30 days after the day the commonwealth deposits its instrument of ratification with the United Nations.
The ACT government is serious about protecting the human rights of everyone in the territory, particularly those who are most vulnerable, and supports Australia’s ratification of the protocol as a commitment to preventing all forms of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of people in detention. The territory’s own Human Rights Act, our comprehensive statutory oversight system and our criminal laws already go a long way to protecting individuals in detention in the ACT from torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The independent monitoring systems required under OPCAT can only strengthen those protections and ensure the safety of detainees and their inherent dignity and respect.
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