The United Nations has called on the Australian government to immediately stop the mistreatment of children in detention in the Northern Territory.
Alvaro Pop, chair of the UN's permanent forum on indigenous issues, and Australian forum member Professor Megan Davis, issued a statement on Thursday to "categorically reject and denounce the brutalising treatment" of children at Darwin's Don Dale youth detention centre.
As a signatory of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane and Degrading Treatment, as well as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Australian government should by all means necessary comply and "immediately halt the inappropriate treatment of children" at the centre, they said.
They also called on the government to ensure that indigenous people are involved in all processes of the royal commission, and to make sure a juvenile detention system is developed in the NT which considers the needs and culturally appropriate methods for the rehabilitation of Aboriginal children.
