National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Men's Network input to the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples
March 2026
About the Network
The National Community Legal Centres Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Men’s Network is open to all Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander men who work in the national community legal sector. It is a non-carceral First Nations justice network that prioritises:
- safety for victims of violence
- healing and restoration for all
- keeping our kids safe, well, and supported
- justice, needs and rights in regional, rural, remote and very remote areas
- the expansion and use of Alternative First Responders.
About the submission
This submission outlines several pressing human rights and justice barriers experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia:
- The mass incarceration of First Nations children and young people
- Australia’s regression against several Closing the Gap targets including rates of children in out of home care, adult incarceration, and suicide
- The need for Alternative First Responders
- Geographic discrimination and geographic inequity experienced by First Nations communities
- Democratic participation for First Nations people.
Recommendations throughout are directed at the Federal Government.
This submission is grounded in the knowledge that Australia was established based on the false claim of terra nullius, which was used to justify colonisation and genocide.
The ongoing impacts of dispossession, the Stolen Generations, and systemic racism mean First Nations people experience much higher rates of poverty, gender-based violence, housing insecurity, physical and mental ill-health, and child removals than non-Indigenous people.
Combined with over-policing, these factors also increase the chance of contact between First Nations people and the criminal legal system.
Recommendations
- Raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years old nationally.
- Redesign the youth justice system to more heavily invest in prevention and early intervention measures.
- Work with state and territory governments and the Aboriginal community-controlled sector to develop culturally appropriate frameworks for assessing actual risk to children, to ensure First Nations people aren’t unjustly prevented from becoming kinship carers.
- Work with state and territory governments and the Aboriginal community-controlled sector to develop a framework to support First Nations people leaving prison. Ensure support ahead of release to access ID, and to arrange income, a safe place to live, and access to health, legal, and financial counselling services. Implement clear and consistent rules of access to prisons for organisations delivering critical services, including legal assistance. This includes facilitating continuity of casework support for people leading up to, and following, release.
- Significantly increase funding for Aboriginal community-controlled mental health services and appropriate housing.
- Work with state and territory governments and the Aboriginal community-controlled sector to develop and adopt evidence-based, culturally appropriate alternative first responder approaches.
- Remove legislation that deprives people who are incarcerated of the right to vote.