Ending cruel and degrading practices in prisons
Abuse thrives behind prison walls and we advocate to end particularly cruel and degrading practices, including routine strip searching and the use of spit hoods and restraint chairs.
Oversight and transparency of places of detention
We call for greater oversight and transparency to prevent abuse behind prison walls. This includes advocating for the effective implementation of the United Nations’ anti-torture treaties, including the protocol which requires independent inspections and monitoring of places of detention to be implemented across Australia.
How we work
We recognise the close connection between growing imprisonment rates, racial injustice and the risk of people being subjected to human rights abuses behind bars. While our primary focus is always on reducing the number of people being pipelined into prisons, we also work in partnership with Aboriginal organisations, community legal centres and other partners to call for an end to harmful prison practices for those people currently trapped in the criminal legal system, and advocate for greater oversight and transparency of human rights abuses committed in places of detention.
Ending cruel practices in prisons
Abuse thrives behind prison walls. The Human Rights Law Centre works towards end cruel and degrading practices in prisons.
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Ending strip searching in prisons
Strip searching is a degrading practice that is frequently and routinely carried out in Australian prisons, despite the availability of non-invasive alternatives such as body scanning technology. The Human Rights Law Centre advocates for an end to the dehumanising practice of routine strip searching in prisons.
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Challenging unjust bail laws in Victoria
The Human Rights Law Centre is advocating to change unjust, regressive bail laws that are driving up the number of unsentenced people in prison across Australia. These dangerous laws are increasing the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in prisons and targeting women experiencing disadvantage.
Read morePast Impact
High Court victory ensuring the right to vote for people in prison
Every person should have the right to vote in a democracy. The Human Rights Law Centre represented Vickie Roach, an Indigenous woman and advocate for people who are incarcerated, in a successful constitutional challenge.
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Stopping the imprisonment of children in adult jails
In November 2016, the Victorian Andrews Government decided to use the Grevillea Unit in the Barwon maximum security adult prison as a youth jail and started sending children as young as 15 there. The Human Rights Law Centre used legal action to challenge this under Victoria’s Human Rights Charter.
Read moreHow you can support this work
Acknowledgement of Country
The Human Rights Law Centre acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands across Australia, including the lands of the Wurundjeri, Boon Wurrung, Gadigal, Ngunnawal, Darug and Wadawurrung people where we work from.
We pay our respect to Elders past and present. This land always was, and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
WARNING: This site contains images or names of people who have passed away.