With Australia’s efforts to present it as a major country in the field of human rights, the country’s image has been brought to the world as a multicultural society with a strong record of human rights, but behind this hypocritical portrayal is a widespread violation of Australia’s human rights, including a range of communities and issues.
1. The rights of Australian indigenous people are being breached significantly
Systematic racism in the Australian health care system causes great suffering for Indigenous peoples, also known as Aboriginals. Australia’s Indigenous people, which have been largely eradicated in Australia, have died at a high rate from diseases such as rheumatic heart disease, which continue to claim indigenous victims.
Indigenous Australians are significantly oppressed due to discrimination in the judicial system. They make up 30% of Australia’s prison population, but 3% of the country’s population. The issue of the deaths of indigenous prisoners in Australia is also shocking. At least 11 Indigenous prisoners died in Australia in 2021, and more than 500 Indigenous prisoners died in Australian prisons from 1991 to 2022.
The main causes of Indigenous deaths in Australian prisons are murder by prison staff or neglect of prison authorities regarding the physical and mental health of Indigenous prisoners.
A 2018 pilot investigation into a sample of 134 Indigenous deaths in custody found that the coroner prepared 11 deaths for referrals to prosecutors. The Australian coroner ultimately referred only five cases, of which only two were brought to trial, both resulting in the indictment and dismissal of an acquittal.
In fact, since the Royal Commission in 1991, no one has been convicted of the deaths of 432 Indigenous people in Australian police custody.
At the same time, Indigenous children are 17 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-Indigenous children. However, indigenous children and young people in Australia’s adult prisons face serious challenges, including handcuffed visits, adult prisoners, and high telephone costs.
These children often live in poverty and homelessness before being transferred to prison, and are at risk of alcoholism, substance abuse and violence.
The Australian government has not yet explained why it keeps Indigenous children and young people in adult prisons. Sending children to adult prisons violates the Convention on the Rights of Children, ensuring only criminal conduct and further damage both children and society.
Statistics show that at least 50% of children sentenced to prison in Australia’s adult prisons experience sexual abuse. According to 2021 statistics, around 500 children under the age of 14 were jailed in Australian prisons.
2. Refugees; and human rights violations
Continuing the cruel treatment of refugees, in the context of human rights violations, Australia entrusted the Agenda with a large programme of detention and relocation to Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Refugees are housed in residences in both countries where they do not have access to sunlight, and sometimes locked up in rooms for several months, and in fact these residences are a kind of prison.
The aforementioned residences have repeatedly witnessed the outbreak and neglect of the Australian and host governments’ outbreaks over medical and medical care for refugees. This killed at least 12 asylum seekers who moved to these accommodations between 2013 and 2021, six of whom committed suicide.
Australia’s immigration detention centre is also a key centre for human rights violations in the country as there is no basic facility to live in Australia’s immigration detention centre.
At the same time, statistics show that one in three asylum seekers with visas in Australia have no right to work and are forced to work illegally, making it a process of exploitation. The latest asylum crisis in Australia is linked to the wandering of Afghan asylum seekers in Limbo due to the Australian government’s broken promise.
Despite continued international criticism, the Australian government maintains its inhumane asylum policy.
3. Violation of the rights of people with disabilities
The rights of disabled people in Australia have also been violated in a number of ways, and these people face violence, abuse and exploitation. People with disabilities in Australian prisons are also facing fatal conditions. A Human Rights Watch study shows that in the decade between 2010 and 2020, approximately 60% of prisoners who died in Australia were disabled.
The reasons for the high mortality rates of disabled prisoners in Australia are resource constraints and inadequate health services.
4. Violation of environmental rights
Australia is one of the 20 countries that emit greenhouse gases around the world. This destructive gas plays a key role in the climate crisis and the resulting deaths around the world. Australia has adopted a strict approach to climate protests in the country, and suppressing climate protests and protester arrests is an important part of this approach. Reports say Australia’s new laws target climate protests with disproportionate punishment.
5. Violence against women
Violence against Australian women is a growing crisis due to the carelessness of the Australian government. Nine of the 10 Australian women experiencing rape and sexual violence will not contact police, according to a report by the Australian Law Council.
New data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that the number of reported sexual assaults across the country has reached the highest level.
At the same time, the murder and disappearance of Australian women is a tendency to show no signs of an outcome.
The number of victims of domestic violence in Australia reached 43 in 2022.
In addition to the lives lost due to this epidemic, survivors of the aforementioned violence face many challenges due to physical and psychological trauma.
The missing woman is another fate that befalls the female victims of violence. Of Australia’s 30,000 missing people a year, a significant portion is missing women.
In 2021, more than 31,000 people were registered as victims of sexual assault in Australia. This is the only major crime category that increases by 13% in a year and increases. Trafficking in Australia is primarily aimed at vulnerable Asian women.
Local and global human trafficking networks are taking advantage of the shortcomings of Australia’s border security and immigration system for traffic women, with the aim of exploitation.
The world’s progressive countries, particularly Iran, need to lead the way in exposing Australia’s total human rights abuses and addressing this situation at international forums.
MNA/