President's message | February 2025

UN decisions confirm Australia's human rights obligations to refugees and people seeking asylum sent offshore

The Refugee Convention is the international community’s commitment to work together to protect people fleeing violence and persecution. When Australia agreed to be bound by the Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocol, we agreed to protect refugees who came to our country seeking safety.

Australia has provided safety and a new life in peace and freedom for hundreds of thousands of refugees and their families. They have contributed richly to our society. But over the years, key parts of our refugee policies have hardened. Instead of protecting people seeking safety who arrive by boat, successive Australian governments have harmed them, detaining them indefinitely and transferring them to remote offshore islands.

The Commission has long held concerns about these policies and two important recent UN Human Rights Committee decisions confirm that Australia has breached the human rights of people transferred offshore.

The two cases involved 25 people who came to Australia by boat in 2013 and 2014 seeking safety. They were first detained in Australia and then forcibly removed to Nauru, a tiny island nation some 3,000 kilometres off the Australian coast. They were detained there under arrangements agreed between Australia and Nauru and funded by Australia. In the group, 24 were children at the time. All but one of the group were found to be refugees.

The UN Committee’s decisions documented the harm experienced by the group and the degree of control exercised by Australia over the arrangements in Nauru. The Committee concluded that their human rights were breached, and that Australia was responsible for the breaches on Nauru. As Committee member Mahjoub El Haiba said: “Where there is power or effective control, there is responsibility. The outsourcing of operations does not absolve States of accountability.”

The decision is an important vindication for the affected people. The UN Committee called on Australia to compensate the victims, prevent similar violations and align its laws and policies with its human rights obligations. The Australian Government should implement the ruling. The decision is timely as Australia is still transferring people to Nauru. Around 100 people who came to our country seeking safety are currently on Nauru after being transferred there by Australia.

The UN decision, which drew on the Commission's work, is also internationally significant as other countries look to copy aspects of Australia’s harmful policies.

Instead of prompting a race to the bottom, Australia should be taking the lead on protecting people fleeing violence and persecution and encouraging others to follow our example.   
 

Hugh de Kretser