A/HRC/35/25/Add.3 Australia, including unaccompanied children. On 31 August 2014, the High Court of Australia held that the Malaysia deal was in violation of the Migration Act and that the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection had no power to remove from Australia asylum seekers whose claims for protection had not been determined. The decision raised questions over the whole practice of offshore processing. 12. In June 2012, the Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers was established to examine the way forward in responding to boat arrivals. In August 2012, the panel recommended establishing offshore centres and increasing the intake of refugees. Also in August 2012, the Government announced the reopening of the regional processing centres, and the reinstatement of third-country processing for asylum seekers arriving unauthorized, by boat, after 13 August 2012. Australia went on to sign agreements with Papua New Guinea and Nauru to conduct offshore processing. 13. In October 2013, the Government adopted a new policy of naval vessels intercepting boats of migrants and directing them back to the country from which the vessel had departed, which was followed by a dramatic reduction in arrivals. III. Normative and legal framework on migration and border management A. International framework 14. Australia is party to eight of the nine core international human rights treaties. It has made reservations to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It has signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and has ratified the first two optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. 15. Australia has also ratified the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air. It is party to the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, of 1954, the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, of 1961, and the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. 16. Australia has ratified the Convention on the Law of the Sea, which establishes the structure of maritime territory and the rights and obligations of States. It has acceded to the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, which establishes State duties in relation to establishing search and rescue services, and the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, which builds on the norms that States and other actors have an explicit duty to meet for those in distress at sea. B. Regional framework 17. Australia is a member of the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime. In March 2016, the sixth Bali Process Ministerial Conference led to the endorsement of a declaration which acknowledges the growing scale and complexity of irregular migration challenges, both within and outside the Asia-Pacific region, and supports measures that would contribute to comprehensive long-term strategies addressing smuggling and human trafficking, as well as reducing migrant exploitation by expanding safe, legal and affordable migration pathways. 4