DDHS Submission to Council of Attorneys General - Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility Working group

Danila Dilba Health Service (DDHS) made a submission to the Council of Attorneys General Working Group on raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility In February 2020.

DDHS supports the position adopted by the national campaign group for raising the age of criminal responsibility, which advocates that the laws that dictate the age of criminal responsibility in all states, territories and the Commonwealth need to be reformed in line with the following principles: 
1. The minimum age of criminal responsibility must be raised to at least 14 years.  
2. There must be no 'carve outs' to this legislation, even for serious offences. 

At any one-time, 98% of young people in detention in the NT are Indigenous. Raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14 is an essential step in reducing the over representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in Australia's prisons.