Following the release of the harrowing ‘Forgotten Children’ report last week by the Human Right Commission—detailing the government’s breach of human rights against children in detention centres, the inexplicably prolonged detention of children and cases of assault and self harm on children, among a series of other equally disturbing things—the president of the Human Rights Commission Gillian Triggs has searingly hit back at the government for their criticism of the report in a Fairfax op-ed published today.
To get you up to speed, Tony Abbott last week tore the ‘Forgotten Children’ report and its agenda to shreds on Fairfax Radio, discrediting the seriousness of the report. The Prime Minister told Fairfax Radio that the Human Rights Commission “should be ashamed of themselves” and added that the Coalition government’s “stop the boats” policy was improving and preventing worse situations in Australian detention centres, saying, “I reckon that the Human Rights Commission ought to send a note of congratulations to Scott Morrison.”
Today, following a report on Friday claiming that the Governor General George Brandis attempted to remove Triggs from her position as the president of the HRC, Gillian Triggs has spoken out about the criticism that followed the ‘Forgotten Children’ report, saying, “Please do not shoot the messenger. The commission is doing its job.”
Triggs staunchly defends the Human Rights Commission in her fairfax op-ed published nationally today, while also addressing claims that the commission holds “political bias”.
Triggs claimed that the commission had no partisan agenda, saying the report targeted both Labor and Liberal governments: “The commission has worked tirelessly over many years reporting on the
failure by both Labor and Liberal governments to comply with their
international law obligations to refugees.” Triggs also adds reiterates: “Both sides of politics are responsible for their treatment of children in immigration detention since 1992.”
“While the boats were stopping, the children were being detained for lengthening periods of time,” Triggs explains of the concerns that arose during the first six months of the Abbott-led Coalition government. She goes on to state that, “Australian domestic law has not been effective in preventing children from being detained for lengthy periods.”
Today, a group of 50 senior academics, the bar association and the law council have publicly announced their strong support for Triggs and the for the importance of the Human Rights Commission’s report. The group has damned the government’s response of crying political bias as a dangerous and unproductive move, highlighting that the report has not been criticised by the government for presenting any factual errors. “The question of responsibility for violations of Australia’s obligations under international law goes beyond politics,” the group’s statement reads.
Furthering that, former Liberal PM Malcolm Fraser has come out to damn the Abbott Government’s response to the report, saying, “If the Government had wanted to handle the matter sensibly, they would have said they recognise there have been abuses.” Fraser also labelled the attack against Triggs and the Human Rights Commission as “outrageous”.
You know things aren’t looking great when lead alumni on your own team start to lose faith in your party’s actions. Another bump in the road for the 2015 Abbottalypse.
You can read Gillian Triggs’ op-ed here, you can (and should) read the ‘Forgotten Children’ report here, and you can find the letter of support from academics for Triggs and the HRC here.
via SMH.
Lead image by Handout via Getty.
