On 9 January 2025 the United Nations Human Rights Committee found Australia responsible under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights for the arbitrary detention of asylum seekers transferred to offshore detention facilities in the Republic of Nauru. The complaints were brought by the Refugee Advice and Casework Service, led by Sarah Dale and Katie Wrigley, on behalf of 24 unaccompanied minors and an Iranian asylum seeker.
Despite Australia’s jurisdictional objections the Committee found that “Australia had significant control and influence over the regional processing facility in Nauru, and thus, we consider that the asylum seekers in those cases were within the State party’s jurisdiction under the ICCPR”. The Committee called on Australia to provide adequate compensation to the victims and take steps to ensure that similar violations do not recur.
Megan Caristo and Erasmus Lovell-Jones both worked on the complaint on behalf of the applicants together with Professor Ben Saul, Stephene Tully, Patrick Deegan and Ahmad Sawan.
