In July 2025, four organisations came together to make sure the truth about prisons, policing and criminalisation in Australia was heard on the world stage. Sisters Inside, the National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, Scarlet Alliance, and the Asian Migrant Sex Worker Advisory Group lodged a joint submission to the United Nations as part of Australia’s Fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a process where countries are examined on their human rights record.
This submission was not just another policy document. It was built from the lived experiences of people who have been incarcerated, criminalised, targeted by police, detained at borders, or pushed to the margins. Our communities demanded that their knowledge and reality be included. When it became clear that these perspectives were being sidelined in larger NGO processes, we made the decision to stand together and speak directly to the UN.
The joint submission exposes the ongoing human rights abuses happening across Australia: deaths in custody, the mass-imprisonment of First Nations people, the rapid increase in women’s incarceration, the imprisonment of children as young as ten, and the criminalisation of disability, poverty and survival. It also highlights the experiences of migrant and sex worker communities facing racial profiling, detention and police harassment.
In July 2025, four organisations came together to make sure the truth about prisons, policing and criminalisation in Australia was heard on the world stage. Sisters Inside, the National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, Scarlet Alliance, and the Asian Migrant Sex Worker Advisory Group lodged a joint submission to the United Nations as part of Australia’s Fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a process where countries are examined on their human rights record.
This submission was not just another policy document. It was built from the lived experiences of people who have been incarcerated, criminalised, targeted by police, detained at borders, or pushed to the margins. Our communities demanded that their knowledge and reality be included. When it became clear that these perspectives were being sidelined in larger NGO processes, we made the decision to stand together and speak directly to the UN.
The joint submission exposes the ongoing human rights abuses happening across Australia: deaths in custody, the mass-imprisonment of First Nations people, the rapid increase in women’s incarceration, the imprisonment of children as young as ten, and the criminalisation of disability, poverty and survival. It also highlights the experiences of migrant and sex worker communities facing racial profiling, detention and police harassment.
The submission called for urgent action, including ending the imprisonment of children, repealing punitive bail laws, abolishing strip searches, banning solitary confinement, and halting prison expansion. It called on investment in community-led solutions instead of punishment: housing, health care, income support, and culturally led services that actually keep communities safe. True safety does not come from more surveillance, more police or more prisons. It comes from meeting people’s needs and respecting their dignity.
Importantly, this joint submission represents solidarity across communities often treated separately: incarcerated women, sex workers, migrant workers and criminalised people. Together, we are refusing to allow our lives to be reduced to statistics or ignored entirely.
Taking our voices to the United Nations is about accountability. It is about ensuring that what happens in prisons, watch houses, detention centres and on the streets is not hidden. Most of all, it is about building a future where our experiences shape the solutions, and where human rights are real for everyone, including those behind bars.
The submission called for urgent action, including ending the imprisonment of children, repealing punitive bail laws, abolishing strip searches, banning solitary confinement, and halting prison expansion. It called on investment in community-led solutions instead of punishment: housing, health care, income support, and culturally led services that actually keep communities safe. True safety does not come from more surveillance, more police or more prisons. It comes from meeting people’s needs and respecting their dignity.
Importantly, this joint submission represents solidarity across communities often treated separately: incarcerated women, sex workers, migrant workers and criminalised people. Together, we are refusing to allow our lives to be reduced to statistics or ignored entirely.
Taking our voices to the United Nations is about accountability. It is about ensuring that what happens in prisons, watch houses, detention centres and on the streets is not hidden. Most of all, it is about building a future where our experiences shape the solutions, and where human rights are real for everyone, including those behind bars.
Project: herself is an organisation I set up to advocate and support women to have self-determined lives. We do that through a couple of things – including storytelling advocacy and frontline service delivery.
Including a death in custody at Acacia prison in WA, Victoria spending the most on youth detention, remand numbers skyrocketing in NSW and more.
In October last year, thousands of New South Wales prison officers also went on strike, plunging incarcerated people into abrupt and extended lockdowns.
Australia is in the midst of an epidemic of prison lockdowns. With the number of people in prison on the rise around the country and staff numbers failing to keep up, lockdowns are increasing in prevalence and severity, and have now become a regular part of prison life.
Help keep the momentum going. All donations will be vital in providing an essential resource for people in prison and their loved ones.
All donations of $2 or more are tax deductible. If you would like to pay directly into our bank account to avoid the processing fee, please contact donate@abouttime.org.au. ABN 67 667 331 106.
Help us get About Time off the ground. All donations are tax deductible and will be vital in providing an essential resource for people in prison and their loved ones.
About Time is bound by the Standards of Practice of the Australian Press Council. If you believe the Standards may have been breached, you may approach About Time or make a complaint to the Australian Press Council in writing at www.presscouncil.org.au. The Council may also be contacted on 1800 025 712.
Your browser window currently does not have enough height, or is zoomed in too far to view our website content correctly. Once the window reaches the minimum required height or zoom percentage, the content will display automatically.
Alternatively, you can learn more via the links below.
Leave a Comment
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere. uis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.