Nauru under scrutiny from UN child rights committee

NAURU – Nauru will come under fresh scrutiny in a United Nations hearing over the treatment of child asylum seekers sent there by the Australian government.

This week the 73rd committee on the rights of the child is being held in Geneva, where Nauru will be thrust into the international spotlight once again for its central role in Australia’s hardline offshore detention regime.

Australia’s detention facilities have drawn heavy domestic and international criticism following The Guardian’s publication of the Nauru files, more than 2000 leaked incident reports that laid bare the devastating abuse and trauma inflicted on children held there.

The United Nations committee has asked Nauru to attend the hearings, in part to provide an update on the frameworks in place to protect child asylum seekers on the island.

A working document for the upcoming UN hearing indicates the committee will focus some attention on the Australian-run detention centre.

It states: “A large number of girls below the age of 15 are subjected to sexual abuse, as well as reports that asylum-seeking and refugee children in the regional processing centres are targeted for sexual abuse, including rape.

“Please clarify what measures, including legal measures, have been taken by the state party to prevent such incidents, and to investigate reports and prosecute and sanction perpetrators.”

The document also asks Nauru to clarify what has been done to protect child victims and child witnesses of sexual abuse, “including among asylum-seeking and refugee children, and to provide medical and psychological assistance”.

The UN committee will also question Nauru’s representatives on what is being done in the judicial and administrative systems to take into account “the best interests of the child” and “what the legal guarantees are for upholding the best interests of the child, especially in respect of its regional arrangements with Australia regarding asylum-seeking and refugee children”.

Nauru’s foreign minister, Charmaine Scotty, is listed as the head of the delegation to appear before the committee.

The hearing was begin yesterday and conclude today.

- The Guardian