The National Network of Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls is outraged by the Northern Territory Government’s decision to block the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention from accessing prisons, watch houses, and children’s prisons.

‘This move by the NT Government is a clear attempt to hide the rapidly deteriorating, abusive, and unlawful conditions faced by people behind bars in the Territory,’ said Debbie Kilroy.

Our fury is not new, and it is not abstract.

In November 2024, the National Network formally wrote to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to urgently request a visit to the Northern Territory during their 2025 mission. In that correspondence, we warned of grave and escalating violations occurring particularly in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), including:

• Severe overcrowding: convicted prisoners held in the Alice Springs watch house due to prisons operating over capacity.
• Inhumane conditions: women and others confined in cells packed with a dozen people, lights kept on 24/7, no access to fresh air, sunlight, exercise, education, phone calls or visits.
• Arbitrary detention and denial of due process: repeated adjournments of bail applications and a wholesale failure of timely judicial oversight, leaving people in indefinite, unlawful detention. 

‘We warned the UN because what is happening in the NT is not a matter of “operational capacity” or “resourcing.” It is systemic cruelty, in direct violation of international law, including the Bangkok Rules, Nelson Mandela Rules, and foundational protections against arbitrary detention,’ said Debbie Kilroy.

‘Since our letter, the situation has only worsened. Conditions in Darwin and Mparntwe, across men’s, women’s and children’s prisons, have deteriorated even further. The Ombudsman’s recent findings confirmed what we have been saying for years: people are held in unreasonable, oppressive, overcrowded, unhygienic, and harmful conditions, with basic human rights denied every single day,’ said Debbie Kilroy.

‘That the NT Government would now bar UN inspectors, gag staff, and refuse even a meeting with international human-rights experts is a shameful act of evasion and impunity. It confirms the very concerns we raised: that people in the NT are being hidden from view precisely because the government knows the treatment inside these facilities will not withstand scrutiny,’ said Debbie Kilroy.

‘The NT Government cannot claim to respect human rights while locking the doors to independent oversight,’ said Tabitha Lean.

‘They cannot invoke “safety” while people are sleeping under fluorescent lights on concrete floors. They cannot hide behind “statutory oversight” while they actively block the highest international body on arbitrary detention. If the system had nothing to hide, it would open its doors,’ said Tabitha Lean.

‘The National Network stand with every woman and child locked in these cages, cut off from sunlight, safety, and justice. We will not stop fighting until international monitors are granted full access, until conditions align with human rights law, and until the ongoing abuse and arbitrary detention in the Northern Territory is exposed and brought to an end,’ said Tabitha Lean.

The National Network calls for:

1. Immediate, unconditional access for the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to all prisons, watch houses, and youth detention centres.
2. Publication of all findings from any UN visits, Ombudsman investigations, coronial inspections, and oversight reports.
3. Urgent transformation to end overcrowding, arbitrary detention, and conditions that breach the Bangkok Rules, Mandela Rules, and basic human dignity.

The NT Government’s refusal of scrutiny tells the public everything they need to know:
People are being abused. Their rights are being violated. And the government would rather hide it than fix it.

We will not turn away.We will keep fighting for every person in a cage.

For further comment, please contact Debbie Kilroy on 0419 762 474 or Tabitha Lean on 0499 780 226