UN tells Nauru to take action on child abuse
Nauru’s government must take ‘‘immediate action’’ to investigate all allegations of mistreatment, abuse and sexual assault against refugee and asylum seeker children, the United Nations has said in a report card on the Pacific island nation.
The report follows a UN Committee on the Rights of the Child hearing, which reviewed the state of children’s rights in Nauru. Many of its findings, or concluding observations, relate to the refugee and asylum seeker children held or hosted on the island as part of its agreement with Australia to process boat arrivals.
The committee concluded that the Nauruan government had accepted asylum seeker and refugee children from Australia ‘‘without taking their best interests into account’’.
Earlier this year, The Guardian revealed thousands of leaked documents from inside the Nauru processing centre, which detailed widespread trauma and abuse among detainees, including children.
The findings were dismissed by the Australian and Nauruan governments as being allegations and historical, despite the reports containing first-hand accounts from employees up until October 2015.
Yesterday the UN committee called on the Nauruan government to ‘‘take immediate action to independently investigate all allegations of ill treatment, abuse and sexual assault’’ against asylum seeker and refugee children, and Nauruan children.
It noted the efforts made by Nauru to develop a child protection system, but expressed concern at the limited capacity of the island’s police force to investigate allegations of sexual assault and violence against children.
The committee was also concerned about the ‘‘inhuman and degrading treatment, including physical, psychological and sexual abuse, against asylum seeking and refugee children living in the regional processing centres’’, and reports of intimidation and violence against people living in the community on the island.
It criticised the lack of assistance for the recovery of children who ‘‘experienced trauma prior to their arrival in Nauru and the subsequent impact of prolonged periods of living in detention-like conditions, which has resulted in many cases of attempted suicide, self-immolation, acts of self-harm and depression’’.
It called for compulsory training and mandatory reporting requirements for all professionals working with children, and immediate protection, prevention and rehabilitation measures.
The committee also expressed serious concern that international organisations and journalists had been restricted from conducting research relating to children’s rights, and that there had been reports of international organisations being subjected to intimidation.
The Nauruan government has increasingly sought to prevent any potential critics from entering the country.
Journalists are now charged a US$8000 non-refundable visa application fee, and only two Australian journalists have since been granted access.
In September, Nauru refused to admit some members of a Danish political delegation, including members of parliament, who had hoped to visit the processing centre as part of a fact-finding mission on Australia’s immigration policy.