The President of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (“ALHR”), Stephen Keim, has called for greater oversight and monitoring of all places of detention in accordance with international human rights standards, after a recent Aboriginal death in custody was caused by NT Police “lack of care”.
The NT Coroner delivered his findings in Alice Springs, on Monday after an inquest into the death of Kwementyaye Briscoe, a 27 year old Aboriginal man, who was taken into protective custody for being intoxicated in January 2012. The Coroner found extensive police errors and that the “death was preventable and should not have occurred.”
Mr Keim said today, “It is this kind of preventable tragedy that urges us to question why Australia continues to fall behind the global standards set out in the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT). OPCAT aims to promote humane conditions of detention and prevent these human rights abuses from occurring.”
stephen Keim Australian Lawyers for Human rights on Briscoe death
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