Justice at last for children detained on Nauru, says RACS
After a nine-year battle, the UN found Australia violated the human rights of refugee children detained in Nauru.
After a nine-year battle, the UN found Australia violated the human rights of refugee children detained in Nauru.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has delivered a landmark decision finding Australia violated the human rights of a group of refugee children detained on Nauru. The decision, handed down on 9 January 2025, comes nine years after the Refugee Advice & Casework Service (RACS), an affiliated centre of UNSW Law & Justice, lodged a complaint on behalf of a group of unaccompanied children who were arbitrarily detained on Nauru.
“I cannot overstate how important this decision is,” said Sarah Dale, RACS Centre Director & Principal Solicitor. “We have been fighting for this justice, against all odds, for almost a decade.”
Aarash (a pseudonym), now in his late 20s, shared: “I was 16 years old and I cannot remember any of my birthdays since 2013. Now that I'm grown, when I see younger ones that age, having fun, playing, going to school, it reminds me of everything I lost. I felt less human, not human at all.”
Aarash is one of 24 children from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar who were intercepted at sea by Australia in 2013 while fleeing persecution in their home countries and en route to Australia. After being detained on Christmas Island, he was one of the children who were transferred to detention facilities in Nauru in 2014 and remained there despite all but one of them being granted refugee status that same year.
RACS filed a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee in January 2016, and the case involved almost a decade of gathering evidence, hearings, submissions and correspondence back and forth across time zones. Australia constantly contended that it was not responsible because the abuses occurred in Nauru. As reaffirmed in the UN decision, international law rejects such an argument.
“The outsourcing of operations does not absolve States of accountability. Offshore detention facilities are not human-rights free zones for the State party, which remains bound by the provisions of the Covenant,” said UN Committee Member Mahjoub El Haiba.
Following this ruling from the UN, two critical steps are required in order to secure justice for the children whose human rights were violated. Firstly, the Australian Government should follow the UN’s recommendation to promptly compensate the young people for violating their human rights. Secondly, the Australian Government should provide permanent protection in Australia for the handful of unaccompanied minors and others who are still, after many years, on bridging visas in Australia, many with no pathways to resettlement.
“The UN’s ruling recognises the suffering of the young people who lost their childhoods to Australia’s cruel immigration system,” Ms Dale said. “The Australian Government must now respond by providing certainty and residency to these young people who, all these years later, remain in limbo, on bridging visas, despite being refugees owed protection by Australia.”
“Even now I'm suffering from depression caused by being detained all those years,” said Aarash. “It's affected my life too much. All those years that passed, they’re not coming back.”
I cannot overstate how important this decision is. We have been fighting for this justice, against all odds, for almost a decade.![]()