Law Council and the Australian Medical Association issue a joint media release on youth justice
30 August 2024
On 23 August 2024, the Law Council issued a joint media release with the Australian Medical Association welcoming the report of the National Children’s Commissioner entitled ‘Help way earlier!’ How Australia can transform child justice to improve safety and wellbeing. The release also echoed the joint LCA/AMA statement from 2019 encouraging governments in all Australian jurisdictions to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14, and noting both organisations’ concern about the tenor of the current political debate over youth justice. Prosecuting and criminalising 10-13 year-olds goes against the best medical and sociological evidence available – it harms the children involved, impairs their development and sets them on a path that is unlikely to make their communities safer. Australia’s international human rights obligations require the detention of children to be a last resort. In our society, 10 year-olds are too young to vote, drive or board a plane unsupervised, and so it follows that they are too young to be held criminally responsible for their actions as adults.
Last Updated on 30/08/2024