The Australian Child Rights Taskforce has written to the United Nations to support a complaint lodged by the Human Rights Law Centre and Indigenous international law experts Professor Megan Davis and Associate Professor Hannah McGlade on the disproportionate impact of youth justice laws on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

In a letter sent Friday to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination's chair, Michal Balcerzak, Australian Child Rights Taskforce Steering Group co-chair, James McDougall, noted the Taskforce is a coalition of more than one hundred organisations, networks and individuals committed to the protection of the rights of children and young people in Australia.

"Our key objective is to report on and support measures to address child rights issues in Australia," he wrote on behalf of the Taskforce.

"This includes reporting to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and supporting reporting to other human rights bodies. We have also made and supported recommendations to the Australian Government for many years to improve national action on child safety and youth justice.

"The Taskforce has called for enforceable national minimum standards to drive reform in youth justice systems. We have noted the disproportionate impacts of the flaws of existing systems upon Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children."

Mr McDougall noted the Taskforce has given evidence alongside the Australian Children's Commissioners, Guardians and Advocates Group at the Australian Senate's Inquiry into Australia's Youth Justice and Incarceration System earlier this year, before strongly backing the complaint lodged with the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination by Professor Davis and Dr McGlade in March 2025.

"We write to you in relation to the complaint submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination under the early warning and urgent action procedure, regarding the disproportionate impact of youth justice laws and policies in Australia upon Indigenous / Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children... The Taskforce supports the complaint," he wrote.

"We note the ongoing attention that has been given to the discriminatory operation of our youth justice systems by the Committee and other UN human rights bodies including the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Special Rapporteurs on Torture and on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"The Australian Government has failed to act decisively with leadership and the legislative and policy actions of several State and Territory Governments have further worsened the situation."

Dr McGlade told National Indigenous Times there is an urgent need for the federal government to respond to the youth justice crisis, which has seen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children locked up at alarming rates across the country and face poor conditions and high rates of self-harm in custody.

"I have just returned from Darwin and heard about the horrific state of youth justice and the clear racism of the CLP government," she said.

"It is very clear the federal government is indirectly supporting very serious violations of human rights in the Northern Territory though their funding of this rogue government.

"Again, we call on Minister (for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri) McCarthy and her colleagues to intervene urgently, using their fiscal and Constitutional powers and responsibilities."

Dr McGlade said "Aboriginal children's lives are being put at risk every day across this country".

"The federal government has evaded its responsibility and betrayed us as Aboriginal people," she said.

"For the last three years the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues has told Australia that they need to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and yet they have refused to do so.

"The recent Senate inquiry instigated by the Greens in youth justice is to be commended. They will investigate whether Australia is breaching its international human rights law commitments. We have established that they are clearly violating the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the international Convention on Civil and Political Rights."

Mr McDougall urged the UN Committee to issue a decision as soon as possible during its upcoming session this year.

"We contend that Australia is in serious breach of the Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and urge the Committee to call on the Australian Government to take immediate action to address this breach and prevent further harm," he concluded.

National Indigenous Times has contacted the Attorney General for comment.