Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Nauru a 'breach' of rights

Human rights commissioner Gillian Triggs. Photo: Michael Clayton-Jones

THE indefinite detention of asylum seekers on Nauru is ''an egregious breach of international human rights law'', says the Gillard government's hand-picked human rights commissioner, Gillian Triggs.

And in a separate development, Australia has told Sri Lanka - a country it has been returning asylum seekers to - that it must stop its police and army abusing, torturing and mistreating its citizens, and must end the disappearances and abductions occurring across the country.

Australia's demands to Sri Lanka were made in Geneva as part of the United Nations universal periodic review process, in which all UN countries have their human rights records assessed by fellow members.

Professor Triggs, who was appointed human rights commissioner in June, told Fairfax on Tuesday that she would seek an urgent meeting with Immigration Minister Chris Bowen about Nauru when she returned from a human rights conference in Jordan.

''I have made my view really plain to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship in saying that to detain people on this remote island, and delaying by at least six months their processing, and where they're advised that they will be kept there for five years, is an egregious breach of international human rights law,'' she said.

''Asylum seekers have a legal right under international law to have their claims assessed in a speedy and appropriate way, and this is at risk of being arbitrary detention.''

Meanwhile, the hunger strike on Nauru dragged into its sixth day. An asylum seeker on Nauru told Fairfax that more than 300 people were taking part in the protest, and that the men were weak, with most spending their days lying around ''and feeling the sickness''.