A/HRC/36/46/Add.2 received inadequate medical care and suffered police actions described by the Coroner as “unprofessional and inhumane”. 21 The Special Rapporteur met with officials of the Coroner’s Court of Western Australia, which conducted the inquest into the death of Ms. Dhu, and made important recommendations that must be implemented as a matter of priority in order to prevent similar deaths in custody. Since the State Coroner does not examine issues of civil or criminal liability, it remains important to investigate such matters, including in the case of Ms. Dhu. 71. Among the numerous recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody that the Government has still failed to implement, is the adoption of custody notification services throughout the country. Next of kin should be informed that their relative has been taken into custody as a minimum safeguard against irregular detention practices. Such notification services, despite not carrying major cost implications, are currently only available in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. 72. Ms. Dhu was in police custody for fine default. In Western Australia, a growing number of Aboriginal women find themselves unable to pay fines and are taken into custody as result. The Special Rapporteur visited Bandyup prison, a women’s prison in Perth, where Aboriginal women comprised 48 per cent of the detainees. She is particularly concerned to learn that many of the Aboriginal women had no access to housing when they came out of prison. As a result of incarceration, many women also struggled to keep ties with and to regain custody of their children. The laws on fine default are an example of legislation having a disproportionate impact on Aboriginal women. 73. Aboriginal women and girls are the fastest growing prison population across the country. As pointed out by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences during her visit to Australia in February 2017, many incarcerated women and girls have been the victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.22 Despite knowledge of such victimization, detention facilities lack support services for women who have suffered sexual assault and were in fact cut in Bandyup prison in 2016. Gender-sensitive measures are required to reduce rates of imprisonment of Aboriginal women and girls and should be developed based on consultations directly with them. 74. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are 24 times more likely to be detained than non-indigenous children. The Special Rapporteur found the routine detention of young indigenous children the most distressing aspect of her visit. In Cleveland Youth Detention Centre, she met several children as young as 12 years old. Many of the children had already been detained several times at the same facility and more or less gone straight from out-of-home care into detention. The majority of the detained children are on remand. 75. The application of criminal responsibility as low as at the age of 10 years across the country is deeply troubling and below international standards. This situation is aggravated by the failure to apply diversion measures and community programmes and the placement of children in high-security facilities, such as the Cleveland Youth Detention Centre. All personnel in detention facilities should receive training on culturally sensitive child care. The facility is strictly regulated and run based on punitive measures for misdemeanours as minor as overstaying in the pool in the facility. 76. Several sources, including judges, informed the Special Rapporteur that, in the majority of instances, the initial offences committed by children were minor and nonviolent. In such cases, it is wholly inappropriate to detain children in punitive, rather than rehabilitative, conditions. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are essentially being punished for being poor and, in most cases, prison will only perpetuate the cycle of violence, intergenerational trauma, poverty and crime. The Special Rapporteur was alarmed that several of the young children she spoke to detention did not see any future prospects for themselves. 77. As already recommended several times over the past two decades by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Special Rapporteur urges Australia to increase the age of 21 22 See www.coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/_files/dhu%20finding.pdf. See www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21243&LangID=E. 13