script
[slide 1]
in the Universal Periodic Review on Australia, nine countries from 4 different continents had submitted their questions.
the most receiving questions are from countries in Europe, such as the Principality of Liechtenstein, the Kingdom of Sweden, the UK, the Commonwealth of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia, and the Federal Republic of Germany.
The country from South America is the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, and the country from North America is the Republic of Panama.
The Islamic Republic of Iran from Asia, located in the Middle East region, also participated.
[slide 2]
For countries from Europe, they are mainly concerned with the the treatment of Australian Government of Indigenous people. empirically, the representation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in prison was 12 times higher than the non-indigenous group in Australian prisons.
Australia’s response to this incarceration only focuses on the continuity to close the gap and recommended the governments adopt “justice reinvestment” in regards to the justice system involving the indigenous people.
This issue is also linked to the juvenile justice system, in which Australia was being questioned about how their justice system functions when it comes to indicting the indigenous people. the cause of these questions arise is because, according to my outside research, Around half of all young Australians in juvenile detention are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and the Indigenous recidivism rate of 58 percent within 10 years was significantly higher than the Indigenous school retention rate from Year 7 to Year 12.
Although, the rate of Indigenous incarceration is having a knock-on effect in Indigenous communities and has become an inter-generational problem, thus, the government’s mechanism to dissolve this issue seem to be ineffective.
unfortunately, transnational organized crimes in Australia remain a concern due to the number of manufacturers and the trafficking of firearms and ammunition. And according to the documents from the Review, Australia opt-out of answering the question related to that area.
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if they ask why:
[Slide 3]
The Republic of Panama from North America on the other hand, questioned the effect on citizens’ rights to privacy as it accused Australia of retaining the metadata, and facilitating access to encrypted messages. The reason behind this is that In April, the government’s data retention law came into effect. The law requires telecommunications companies to store customer metadata for at least two years.
And the reason why this is a concern to human rights is that the metadata, in another word means “data about data” — which can be highly revealing and provide a comprehensive depiction of our daily activities, communications, and movements.
- if they ask why Australia has a data retention law:
- because they wanna ensure the protection of the citizens’ from terrorist activities (the Australia’s response)
- if they ask if we agree or not
- no! why? because:
- it undermines the democratic principles on which Australia was founded.
- it is unlikely to achieve its stated objective and thwart serious terrorist activities because if the terrorist acts were to happen, many advanced technological devices will be used to circumvent the government’s surveillance regime.
[Slide4]
The Islamic Republic of Iran questioned specifically regarding the imprisonment and justice system functions in Australia’s legal framework. They had raised the case of Mrs. Negar Ghoskani, who is an Iranian that was arrested in Australia in 2017.
She was arrested for smuggling technological devices from Iran to the US and was arrested by the Australian authorities when she moved to the country. In the case of Mrs. Negar, Iran stated that the country is in violation of the rights of the child because when Mrs. Negar was in jail, she was pregnant and was forced to give up her baby to the father, right after the delivery at the hospital.
Australia also refuses to transfer Mrs. Negar to the US for indictment as they believe that she’s a flight risk.
Due to the closed-up media freedom in Australia, we don’t get to hear a lot about the case of police brutality in Australia. However, the system of police brutality is excessively severe when it comes to the indigenous population. Police brutality in Australia comes in all kinds of forms, such as Excessive Use of Force, Racial Discrimination, Wrongful Imprisonment, Harassment, and Abuse inside the Prison.
Once again, Australia opted out of responding to this issue.