Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

March 2026

Overview of the Submission

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the First Peoples of Australia, maintaining continuous cultural, spiritual and social connections to Country for more than 65,000 years across hundreds of distinct Nations with their own governance systems, laws and languages.

This submission to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples outlines SNAICC’s concerns about the systemic conditions that continue to undermine the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in Australia. It makes clear that the ongoing over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care, residential care and child detention is not incidental. Rather, it reflects the continued impacts of colonisation, dispossession, forced child removal and institutional control, alongside contemporary laws, policies and systems that remain structurally unequal and too often fail to uphold children’s rights to family, culture, identity, participation and self-determination.

In this submission, SNAICC brings to light the persistent disconnect between Australia’s international human rights commitments and the lived reality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people and families. Despite Australia’s obligations under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children continue to experience disproportionate intervention, family separation, cultural disconnection and harmful treatment across systems that should protect and support them.

A central concern of the submission is that current child protection and child justice systems remain largely punitive and reactive, rather than preventative, culturally safe and community-led. Too often, children are removed not because all other options have been exhausted, but in response to structural disadvantage, including poverty, housing insecurity and limited access to culturally safe supports. These responses can sever children’s connections to family, kinship systems, culture and Country, causing profound and lasting harm. The submission also details the strong and harmful connection between child protection and child justice systems. Child protection involvement, particularly out-of-home care and residential care, too often becomes a pathway into the child justice system, exposing children to further trauma, instability and criminalisation. SNAICC makes clear that these systems do not operate in isolation; they function as a connected pipeline that continues to entrench disadvantage and lifelong harm for too many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

SNAICC is also deeply concerned by the continued use of harmful and punitive practices in child detention, including isolation, restraints, denial of basic needs and restricted contact with family and legal representatives. The submission argues that these practices are inconsistent with Australia’s obligations under international human rights frameworks and can compound trauma, undermine wellbeing and expose children to further harm.

At the same time, this submission makes clear that the solutions are already known.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations are already delivering culturally grounded, community-led approaches that strengthen families, support cultural continuity, prevent unnecessary system involvement and improve outcomes for children. The submission points to a strong evidence base for shifting investment and decision-making away from crisis-driven statutory systems and toward early, culturally safe, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led support.

What SNAICC is calling for

SNAICC’s submission calls for urgent action to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s rights are upheld in practice. SNAICC is calling for:

• greater decision-making authority for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations in systems affecting children, young people and families,
• increased investment in prevention, early support and family preservation, particularly through Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations,
• full implementation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle, across all five elements: Prevention, Partnership, Placement, Participation and Connection,
• reduced reliance on detention and punitive system responses, with greater investment in healing, diversion and community-led alternatives,
• stronger Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led oversight, accountability and complaints mechanisms, and
• recognition and investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led models of care and support that are already delivering better outcomes for children and families.

Protecting the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children requires structural reform, sustained investment and a genuine commitment to self-determination. Without this shift, Australia will continue to reproduce harm through systems that intervene too late and too often. With it, there is a clear pathway to ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children grow up safe, strong and connected to family, culture, community and Country.