End Deaths in Custody now!
The deaths of First Nations people in custody is a national crisis. 555 First Nations People have died in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) handed down its report.
The RCIADIC confirmed what we already knew - that Black deaths in custody are a result of ongoing racism within governments, and police and prisons are failing their duty of care.
For 32 years, our people have been continuously calling on governments to implement the 339 recommendations of this Royal Commission. Yet governments on all levels are failing to take urgent action, and not a single individual or agency has been held accountable for these deaths, which have so often been entirely preventable.
This is why we are calling on the Albanese Government to fully implement all recommendations from the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, beginning with the following immediate actions that are the federal government’s responsibility:
- Improve healthcare in prisons by providing access to Medicare, PBS and NDIS.
- Support and extend Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, allowing them to return to the self-determined community organisations they once were.
- Establish an independent body to monitor and report on the status of the implementation of the RCIADIC. This role should be overseen by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, steering the role back to its original mandate.
- Implement the Optional Protocol the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) with full domestic effect and establish oversight bodies in every jurisdiction.
- Review of policies and legislation leading to over-incarceration of First Peoples.
- Commit to working with state and territory governments, all of which bar one are Labor governments, and other relevant authorities, to urgently implement all other remaining recommendations.
Sign the petition to call on the government to act now!