End the Cruelty – End the Abuse

New South Wales Teachers Federation Senior Vice President Angelo Gavrielatos said today;

"Last year the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Inquiry Report damned Australia's detention of children as 'cruel, inhumane and degrading'. Yet, as reported in today's Sydney Morning Herald, 70 children still remain in detention.

"Not only is this a breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires that detention is a measure of 'last resort', it is morally reprehensible.

"Children in detention are subjected to trauma which is detrimental to their physical and psychological wellbeing. Enclosed in an environment where children witness adults engaging in self-mutilation and self harm is unacceptable.

"The NSWTF calls on the government to end the cruelty and respect basic human rights. We call on the government to release the children into the community with their families."