The Albanese government has rejected key United Nations recommendations aimed at improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including calls to raise the age of criminal responsibility, implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and introduce a national human rights act.
In its response to the fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR) before the UN Human Rights Council, Australia accepted just 128 of 332 recommendations — fewer than 40 per cent. It marks a lower acceptance rate than the 2021 review, when the former Coalition government accepted 51 per cent of recommendations.
The rejected recommendations included calls from countries including Germany, Norway and France to raise the age of criminal responsibility and strengthen protections for Indigenous rights.
Change the Record CEO Jade Lane described the government's response as "appalling".
"Australia's overall response to the UPR is appalling and spells more of the same for First Nations communities — leaders who promise transformative change but lack the courage to follow through," Ms Lane said.
"In particular, we condemn the refusal to accept the long-standing recommendation to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10, a policy decision that disproportionately affects and criminalises First Nations children, as well as to align Australia's criminal legal system with our obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child."
UN highlights failures in youth detention
The UN Human Rights Council raised concerns about racism and discrimination, "inadequate" mental health care in prisons, and Australia's "continued use of prolonged and indefinite solitary confinement".
Its review was particularly critical of Australia's youth detention system, with the Committee against Torture finding the age of criminal responsibility remains 10 in most jurisdictions, children in detention have been "subjected to verbal abuse and racist remarks and restrained in ways that were potentially dangerous", and young people continue to be held in solitary confinement.
The committee identified Banksia Hill in Western Australia, Don Dale in the Northern Territory and Ashley Youth Detention Centre in Tasmania as particularly concerning examples.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children remain significantly over-represented in detention, with incarceration rates more than 25 times higher than those of non-Indigenous children. On an average day in 2025, 734 children were detained across Australia, with almost 62 per cent identifying as Indigenous.
The Productivity Commission's latest Report on Government Services found youth detention costs an average of $1.3 million per child each year — more than $3,600 a day — a figure previously described by the former National Children's Commissioner as a "devastating policy failure".
"Our individual and collective rights as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are inherent and inalienable, not a menu of choices that governments can pick and choose from," Ms Lane said.
"Australia had an opportunity to improve its human rights record, and has failed."
Treatment of children a stain on the country
Writing in National Indigenous Times this year, Nerita Waight, Chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS), drew attention to the mass incarceration of First Nations children and young people.
"Across this country, Aboriginal children are policed earlier, charged more often, refused bail more readily, and held on remand in conditions that do damage," Ms Waight wrote. "The pipeline is not an accident. It is the predictable result of laws and decisions made by governments, parliaments and courts."
Her comments follow a complaint lodged last year with the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination by Professors Megan Davis and Hannah McGlade, concerning the disproportionate impact of youth justice laws on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
Responding to the complaint, the Committee said there is evidence of racial discrimination in Australia, citing the extreme rate of Indigenous young people in prison, racial profiling, over-policing and ill-treatment in detention.
They expressed grave concern about the reported "inadequate conditions and healthcare services in detention facilities for children, detention of Indigenous children with adults and holding them in solitary confinement for prolonged duration, ill-treatment and the use of spit hoods, and cases of self-harm and suicide by Indigenous children in detention".
Government defends approach
In its written response to the UPR, the Australian Government acknowledged it "must do more to address the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the criminal justice system," and argued it was "committed to improving youth justice outcomes".
However, it declined to support raising the age of criminal responsibility nationally. In all but two Australian jurisdictions, children as young as 10 can still be imprisoned.
Human Rights Law Centre CEO Caitlin Reiger said the government's response fell short of international expectations.
"Countries like the United Kingdom, Norway and Germany in the broader international community called on the Albanese Government to do more to protect the rights of First Nations people, children, and refugees," she said.
"The Albanese Government has rejected those calls to improve the lives of people who are doing it tough in Australia."
Last week, this masthead reported on internal government documents detailing federal talking points used to resist calls to raise the age of criminal responsibility, despite legal advice arguing the Commonwealth has constitutional power to legislate.
The advice, obtained last year by the Justice and Equity Centre from barristers Kate Eastman AM SC and Emma Dunlop, concluded the Commonwealth could intervene under section 51(xxix) of the Constitution to meet Australia's international human rights obligations.
The documents reveal the government refusing to engage on the advice whilst simultaneously arguing that criminal justice is the remit of states and territories.
Indigenous rights recommendations rejected
On Indigenous affairs, the government told the UPR: "Our approach is built on partnership, accountability, and respect for the inherent rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
"The National Agreement on Closing the Gap, designed in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives, is a landmark commitment to work side by side, guided by trust and mutual respect, to overcome inequality."
Currently, there are no penalties for states and territories that breach the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, with several jurisdictions having enacted legislation that critics argue undermines its commitments.
Queensland and the Northern Territory have both resisted federal calls to align youth justice laws with Closing the Gap targets. Last year, Northern Territory Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby said her government "acknowledges" the agreement, but it "cannot come at the expense of community safety".
Human Rights Watch Australia researcher Annabel Hennessy said the government's response contradicted its stated commitment to human rights.
"For years, other countries have called on Australia to stop incarcerating children as young as 10, end the offshore detention of asylum seekers, and take real action on climate change, yet Australia still refuses to act," she said.
The government also declined to support recommendations to implement UNDRIP.
In November 2023, after a year-long inquiry, the Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs recommended all Commonwealth legislation and policy be made consistent with the declaration and called for an independent process of truth-telling and agreement-making to support its implementation.
Cathryn Eatock, Co-Chair of the Indigenous Peoples Organisation Australia (IPOA), said rejecting UNDRIP implementation would have lasting consequences.
"Next year the Declaration turns 20, yet Australia has failed to implement it," she said.
"The cost is concrete: Closing the Gap keeps failing because of the Government's failure to effectively engage Indigenous peoples in decision-making on issues impacting them. Unless that changes, the gap will not close and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples will continue to be marginalised.
Ongoing concerns over youth justice
The government argued that states and territories are continuing efforts to "improve conditions for people in detention".
"This includes investing in fit-for-purpose places of detention; rehabilitation and reintegration programs; diversionary programs and non-custodial options to reduce recidivism and prison populations, including programs to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples," they wrote.
However, youth justice practices across Australia continue to attract criticism.
Over the past two years, children as young as 11 have been held in adult watch houses, the Northern Territory government has reintroduced spit hoods in youth detention despite recommendations from the Don Dale Royal Commission, and some state premiers have publicly supported life sentences for children.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also appeared to endorse the tougher approach adopted by some jurisdictions during his Closing the Gap address in February, saying they "have every right to put the safety of their communities first".
