NSW Human Rights Bill Must Ban Child Solitary Confinement

Earlier this year, the NSW Legislative Assembly Committee on Community Services began its inquiry into the Human Rights Bill 2025, a Bill that seeks to establish a legislative human rights framework that supports the protection and enforcement of rights in NSW. During their inquiry, the Committee sought out submissions from various community groups, including No Child in Solitary, which were formally submitted two weeks ago.

Our submission to the inquiry indicated our support for the enactment of a much-needed Human Rights Act for NSW, to ensure that the rights of all people in NSW, including those of children in detention, are upheld and protected. We made it clear that such an Act would be particularly significant for children in youth detention, where the use of solitary confinement and other restrictive isolation practices constitute a severe violation of their human rights. To do so, however, a Human Rights Act in NSW must explicitly and unambiguously ban such practices, as well as incorporate meaningful accountability mechanisms to ensure that these protections are effective.

Solitary confinement has long been condemned by international law as a form of torture and a violation of human rights, particularly when used against children in detention. Various international human rights conventions also address solitary confinement both directly and indirectly, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention Against Torture, all of which Australia has signed and ratified. However, the protections under these Conventions have yet to be reflected in a single human rights framework and are instead incorporated across a range of piecemeal domestic legislation. However, this current approach is plainly inadequate in upholding Australia’s human rights obligations; the lack of a comprehensive legislative framework to protect human rights means that violations of these rights are too often allowed to continue with little to no repercussions.

This is particularly true for children in Australia who experience solitary confinement in youth detention. There is yet to exist an express legislative ban or hard time-limit on the use of solitary confinement in detention in any Australian jurisdiction. Nor is there any statutory requirement for a single human rights-consistent definition of solitary confinement; instead, solitary confinement continued to exist across Australia under various statutory labels permitted at law – such as confinement, separation, segregation, isolation etc. This is a crucial legislative gap that this Human Rights Bill has enormous potential to fill.

However, while we very much support the enactment of a NSW Human Rights legislative framework, the proposed Bill has certain limitations which, if reformed, would ensure a far more inclusive piece of legislation that effectively protects human rights in NSW. For example, the proposed Bill does not explicitly mention or define ‘solitary confinement’ in its text, and while it does prohibit ‘torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’ and also recognises the rights of children in the criminal process, it does not go beyond these general protections. This would mean that any protection against dangerous isolation practices would have to be implied through judicial interpretation, which is often lengthy, expensive, and frequently inaccessible for the very children experiencing the harm. To ensure the protection of children in youth detention, the Human Rights Bill must include a specific ban of solitary confinement with a clear definition so that such practices can be identified and violations can be properly enforced. Among our other recommendations, our submission also urged that the proposed complain process accompanying the Act be made child-friendly and accessible, to ensure that vulnerable children who have experienced harm in detention, are able to exercise their rights and seek effective remedies. Children face additional barriers when trying to access justice; recognition of this, and a commitment to an accessible, trauma-informed, and age-appropriate complaints process is of the utmost importance.

We are grateful for the opportunity to have provided a submission to this inquiry and to have contributed to what we regard as a significant step towards strengthening human rights in NSW, particularly those of children in detention. This proposed Bill is an important opportunity for NSW; not only is such a bill long overdue, but NSW is uniquely placed to learn from other jurisdictions and enact a legislative framework that is enforceable and effective in protecting the rights of people and children in NSW.