Transforming child justice needs more thought than just being ‘tough on crime’
We are in crisis. A crisis of community. At the heart of this crisis are the most vulnerable members of our community, children and young people. Children, by all reasonable measures hold the hope and promise of a just and stable society.
In most states and territories in Australia, children as young as ten years old are charged, sentenced and detained in youth detention centres, in contravention of our international human rights obligations and customary international law. This focus on punitive measures distracts us from the underlying causes of why children and young people come into contact with and become entrenched in the criminal justice system.
When considering systems reform, the youth justice system cannot be viewed in isolation. A child’s access to education, housing and healthcare cannot be siloed from their right to be free from domestic and family violence, their safety within the child protection system and the impact of intergenerational trauma. It is a young person’s interaction with all these complex systems, and the failure of these systems to meet the needs of a child, that drive of youth crime across the country.
National Children’s Commissioner, Ms Anne Hollonds states, “these social determinants of justice show that children’s rights to health, safety, culture, participation, non-discrimination, adequate standards of living, and education are not being realised.”[1]
This failure to realise the rights of children and young people is particularly concerning in Queensland as we are one of the few jurisdictions that has enshrined human rights legislation. Disappointingly, the state government’s decision to override the provisions of the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) has only concerned the abrogation of the rights and liberties of children in the child justice system.
We strongly support the recommendations in the Help way earlier!’ How Australia can transform child justice to improve safety and wellbeing and a national, child rights-based, evidence-driven approach to reform child justice and related systems. This type of transformational, systems reform demands heroic leadership from all levels of government and an undertaking to refrain from “tough on crime” agendas as a salve for community safety. Our communities will be best served when the health, education, child protection systems are resourced to meet the physical, social and emotional needs of our children and young people.
Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Let us work together to help children feel safe and secure, participate in their communities and achieve their potential.
Rebecca Fogerty
President
Queensland Law Society