Today I speak with Steven Caruana. Steven is Coordinator of the Australia OPCAT Network, a coalition of over 200 non-government organisations, academics, statutory officer holders and interested individuals concerned with the effective implementation of oversight to Australian places of detention. He is also a Specialist Advisor to the Australian Human Rights Commission and is involved in monitoring designated mental health units as an Official Visitor. Beyond this, Steven’s previous experience is enormous, having worked at the Disability Royal Commission, the Commonwealth Ombudsman, Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. Much of Steven’s work today stems from a Churchill Fellowship granted in 2017, in which he reported on how other countries monitor places of detention, and what we can learn in Australia.

Today we discussed OPCAT. The Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. So yeah, OPCAT for short hay. It’s an international agreement outlining how our Australian governments need to monitor places of detention. It’s really important, and today is a historic day. Today, we were meant to have implemented OPCAT fully, but it’s a patchwork across Australia, and in states like NSW and Victoria, we’ve barely started. This matters. Abuse in disability settings, Aboriginal deaths and abuse in custody, the many human rights violations I’ve seen in mental health services – they all continue because our governments aren’t monitoring places of detention. Be sure to listen in on this episode and remind Parliamentarians why this matters.

Shownotes:

An article from the Australian Human Rights Commission on our failure to implement OPCAT: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-20/djokovic-australia-immigration-detention-hotel-scrutiny-opcat/100767220?utm_source=abc_news_web&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_web 

Article from Steven and Professor Penelope Weller: https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/acumen/opcat

Article from Steven on OPCAT in prisons: https://www.croakey.org/looking-in-on-the-inside-why-opcat-is-needed-for-australian-prisons-detention-centres/

How Tasmania leads the rest of Australia: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/northtas/programs/drive/opcat-implementation-tasmania/13720332