00:02For the second time in almost a year, the United Nations locked out of NT jails.
00:08Independent scrutiny of prisons is a really essential safeguard
00:13to shine a light on the cruelty that we know thrives behind prison walls.
00:18Last December, a delegation was banned from visiting the adult prison.
00:23Now, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
00:27blocked from visiting Darwin's Holt Youth Detention Centre.
00:31Queensland also saying no.
00:33A move widely condemned.
00:36The fact that the NT government is blocking access to a UN expert
00:40begs the question of what they're trying to hide.
00:43Aboriginal children make up nearly all of the NT's youth prison population on any given day.
00:49Experts say it's especially concerning as there have been a multitude of incidents
00:54in the past and more recently.
00:56In the first 12 months after Holt's opened in November 2024,
01:02nine young people were hospitalised for self-harm.
01:05There were riots, there were sexual assaults, there's overcrowding.
01:12So they've got lots to hide.
01:14If a Rapporteur was able to examine the conditions and report to the community,
01:20it could lead to all kinds of embarrassments and inconveniences for the government, including civil suits.
01:28The Department of Corrections says it's not facilitating a visit because the NT's prisons already have established independent oversight and
01:37accountability arrangements.
01:39The international human rights system and independent scrutiny exists because we don't take governments at their word.
01:47While Labor has condemned the CLP, it would not commit to allowing the UN to visit jails if it got
01:54into power.
01:54.
01:54.
Comments