Australia is a vibrant democracy that mostly protects the civil and political rights of its citizens. However, the country’s rights record is marred by some key human rights concerns. This includes its treatment of children in the criminal justice system. Authorities have subjected children in detention to harsh conditions, including solitary confinement. In Queensland and Western Australia, children were incarcerated in facilities designed for adults.
Another significant rights issue is Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers. Officials continue to subject individuals attempting to reach Australia by boat to offshore detention on the Pacific island of Nauru.
Australia remains the only Western democracy without a national human rights act or charter. In May, a parliamentary inquiry report recommended establishing a Human Rights Act to ensure effective protection of human rights under Australian law.
Youth Justice
On any given day, about 700 children ages 10 to 17 are detained or imprisoned across Australia. First Nations children make up approximately 60 percent of the prison population.
Most Australian states maintain an age of criminal responsibility below the UN-recommended minimum of at least 14 years. In New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia, children as young as 10 can be held criminally responsible and incarcerated.
In August, the Victorian government reversed its commitment to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14, instead introducing legislation to raise it only to 12. In October, the newly elected Northern Territory government lowered the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to 10. The same month, Northern Territory authorities announced that spit hoods — a head covering that raises human rights concerns — would be again used on children.
In August, the National Children’s Commissioner released a report highlighting that children in the criminal justice system were experiencing the “most egregious breaches of human rights” in Australia. The report called for a national response. It urged lawmakers to raise the age of criminal responsibility and implement a ban on solitary confinement for children.
Throughout 2024, authorities in Queensland continued to detain children in watch houses — concrete cells typically designed for short-term detention of adults. In September, an inspection report revealed poor conditions in the Cairns and Murgon watch houses, where children had spent weeks detained. The report highlighted overcrowding in the Cairns watch house and a complete absence of natural light in cells and common areas. In Murgon, children were deprived of fresh air, with no outdoor exercise available.
In Western Australia, authorities detained children in Unit 18, a wing of the maximum-security Casuarina Prison. In September, a 17-year-old boy died by suicide in Banksia Hill Detention Centre in Western Australia. This child had previously been held in Unit 18, where he reportedly endured “routine solitary confinement.”
Asylum Seekers and Refugees
Australia continues to evade its international obligations to asylum seekers by transferring individuals who arrive by boat to Nauru.
At the time of writing, an estimated 94 asylum seekers were on Nauru after being transferred there by Australian authorities. Asylum seekers have reported that officials have confiscated their smartphones and replaced them with camera-less phones, preventing them from documenting their conditions.
Approximately 44 male asylum seekers and refugees remain in Papua New Guinea. It is over a decade since Australia first transferred them there. They were previously held in the now-closed Manus Island detention center. This group also includes about 17 female partners and 34 children. The Australian and PNG governments have been in an ongoing dispute about payments for accommodation.
In November, the government passed new laws that grant it the authority to pay third-party countries to accept non-citizens, including recognized refugees, seek jail time for those who resist deportation, and ban phones from detention centers.
First Nations’ Rights
Following the unsuccessful Indigenous Voice referendum in 2023, the federal government has made minimal strides in advancing First Nations’ rights.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that his government would not move forward with establishing a Makarrata commission — a national body to facilitate truth-telling — despite prior budget allocations for its creation.
The disparities in Australia’s criminal justice system remain enormous, with First Nations individuals hugely overrepresented. The current imprisonment rate for First Nations adults is around 2,266 per 100,000, compared to 149 per 100,000 for non-Indigenous Australians.
Women’s Rights
At least 15 women were killed by intimate partners in the first six months of 2024. Rallies calling for an end to gender-based violence were held across Australia.
In August, a parliamentary inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women released its findings. The inquiry found First Nations women and children were overrepresented among missing persons and murder victims. It also heard evidence that Australia’s policing and criminal legal systems discriminate against First Nations people including women and children and this is evident in inadequate responses to missing persons reports and homicide cases.
Children’s Online Privacy
In the absence of child data privacy protections, children continued to experience harm through the misuse of their personal data.
In July, the personal photos of 362 Australian children from all states and territories were discovered to be secretly scraped and misused to build artificial intelligence (AI) tools that in turn were used by others to create malicious deepfakes of other children. In June, girls in New South Wales and in Victoria reported that their social media photos had been manipulated, using AI, into sexually explicit deepfakes of them.
In September, the government committed to developing the country’s first data protection law for children.
Rights of Older People
In May, the federal government delayed introducing the new Aged Care Act until July 2025. Chemical restraint, the use of medications to control behavior without a therapeutic purpose, is widespread in aged care facilities. Despite Australia’s obligation to prohibit torture, cruel and inhuman treatment, the Aged Care Bill introduced in September continues to permit abusive practices.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
An exemption within the federal Sex Discrimination Act allows religious schools to dismiss teachers and expel students based on gender or sexuality. LGBTIQ+ rights advocates continue to criticize the federal government for its failure to advance proposed amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act to safeguard students and teachers from discrimination.
The courts affirmed transgender rights protections under the Sex Discrimination Act when transgender woman Roxanne Tickle in August won her case against “women’s-only” social media app Giggle, which had barred her from the platform.
Disability Rights
The federal government released its response to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability in July. The government was criticized by disability rights advocates for only fully accepting 13 of the 172 recommendations directed to it.
Environment and Human Rights
Australia remains one of the largest fossil fuel exporters globally, significantly exacerbating the climate crisis and its detrimental human rights impact.
Research released in August, found that despite presenting itself as a minor emitter, Australia is the world’s second largest polluter when carbon emissions from fossil fuel exports are calculated.
In February, the Indigenous Nagana Yarrbayn Wangan and Jagalingou peoples initiated legal action against the Queensland government, alleging that it violated their human rights by failing to prevent the Adani coal mine from contaminating their sacred wetlands. Adani has rejected the claims and says its subsidiary company that operates the coal mine was fully compliant with environmental conditions.
In September, the federal government approved three coal mine expansions.
At the same time, Australia is experiencing bushfires intensified by the climate crisis, which have destroyed hundreds of homes.
Right to Protest
Protesters in Australia risk criminalization, including financial penalties and imprisonment.
Over the past two decades, Australian federal and state parliaments have enacted 49 laws impacting the right to protest. Human Rights Watch research has found climate protesters have faced disproportionate punishments.
In September, police arrested dozens of anti-war activists in Melbourne who were protesting a weapons company exhibition. Victorian police confirmed they had used hard foam baton rounds and synthetic pepper spray on protesters.
Sanctions and Other Forms of Accountability
The federal government continues to use its sanctions regime sparingly. In 2024, it only used its thematic human rights or corruption sanctions on entities or individuals in Iran, Russia, and Israel. Other sanctions were also placed individuals and entities in, for example, Myanmar, and affiliates of Hamas in Palestine. To date, no Chinese officials have been sanctioned by the Australian government.
Australia has not successfully prosecuted any members of its armed forces for war crimes in Afghanistan. In 2023 an Australian soldier was arrested for alleged war crimes, but this has not led to a trial. However, the Defence Ministerstripped distinguished service medals from some Australian soldiers who served in Afghanistan. The Australian government has not yet compensated Afghan victims of Australian war crimes. Some progress, however, has been made with the government finally establishing regulations that will enable it to fulfill this commitment.