Submissions

The National Network provides submissions to government departments, politicians, parliament sitting and Judges.  We also engage in consulatin processes when possible.

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Review of the Mental Health Act 2009

The National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women & Girls (The National Network) is an organisation made up of ciswomen, transwomen, gender diverse people, and girls who are currently incarcerated or have been in cages across so-called Australia.  Read More

Royal Commission into Domestic, Family & Sexual Violence

We make this submission as women who have been to prison, and for almost all of us, as women who have been victim survivors of domestic, family and sexual abuse. We have suffered at the hands of family, husbands, partners, care givers, state agents, and other people who have taken more from us than they were entitled to.  Read More

Queensland Watch House Enquiry

The National Network make thissubmission in full support and endorsement of Sisters Inside’s submission to the Watch House review. This submission therefore is a summary of our views on the matter. An extension of the matters raised in this paper can be seen in full in the Sisters Inside consultation brief.  Read More

Letter to UN Committee on Arbitary Detention

We write to you with urgency and deep concern about the arbitrary detention practices in Australia’s Northern Territory, specifically in Maparntwe (Alice Springs), where the treatment of individuals in custody is in stark violation of international human rights standards, including the Bangkok Rules and Nelson Mandela Rules.  Read More

Inquiry into the poten$al for a Human Rights Act for South Australia

It is our submission that any discussion surrounding the development of a Human Rights Act for South Australia should include the voices of the criminalised and formerly incarcerated communities. Read More

Review of the Mental Health Act 2009

In responding to this principle, we empathise the need to critically examine the framing of “needs” within systems that often perpetuate harm, emphasising the importance of care that is community- led, non-coercive, and grounded in dignity and autonomy. Read More

Justice Responses to Sexual Violence

Our Network in Australia was founded in 2020 and remains an abolitionist organisation committed to ending the incarceration of women and girls. Collectively we argue that prison will never be a safe place for women or girls, and in fact they are spaces and places that deepen poverty, Read More

Tackling Knife Crime in South Australia

We make this submission in protest of the expansion of police powers in the proposed legislative change aimed at tackling so called knife crime in South Australia. The plan to expand police metal detector search powers in South Australia will… Read More

Free TAFE Bill 2024

This submission advocates for the inclusion of fee-free TAFE education for people in prison across Australia. Such an initiative is essential not only to address systemic inequities but also to ensure Australia’s compliance with its international human rights obligations under the United Nations treaties, Read More

Letter to Committee against Torture

We write to express our deep concern regarding the ongoing human rights violations in Australia’s Northern Territory, particularly in Maparntwe (Alice Springs) and Darwin. These issues demand your urgent attention, especially in light of the suspension of your recent visit to Australia due to non-cooperation by the Australian Government. Read More

Feedback – Suicide Prevention Action Plan

While the consultation process for the Action Plan included input from a range of professional and advisory groups, it is concerning that direct consultation with the primary affected community— those currently incarcerated or formerly incarcerated—was notably limited. Read More

Making Queensland Safer Bill 2024

Our submission is a record of our objection of this legislation on the grounds that the introduction of the “Adult Crime, Adult Time” legislation, constitutes a severe breach of international human rights obligations, including the Convention onthe Rights of the Child (CRC), Read More 

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Family Safety Plan Engagement

We acknowledge the decades of work that has foreground our thinking and planning in this area of work: the organising, theorising and active resistance of strong, Blak matriarchs that have come before us.  Read More

Letter to Australian Rep CEDAW

We are writing to you as representatives of the National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, an organisation dedicated to advocating for the rights and dignity of criminalised and incarcerated women, particularly Aboriginal women and girls in Australia. We wish to raise our significant concerns regarding Australia’s non compliance with its obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and related international human rights standards.  Read More

TWES Consultation

The National Network argues that all services should be designed, managed and wherepossible delivered by criminalised people. Agencies, including governments, are quick tostate that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the most incarcerated group ofpeople on this Earth, so we would suggest that it would not be hard for DEWR to findAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander criminalised people to design, manage and deliver services in this area.. Read More

Letter to UN Committee on Arbitary Detention

We write to you with urgency and deep concern about the arbitrary detention practices in Australia’s Northern Territory, specifically in Maparntwe (Alice Springs), where the treatment of individuals in custody is in stark violation of international human rights standards, including the Bangkok Rules and Nelson Mandela Rules.  Read More

Justice responses to Sexual Violence inquiry

The National Network fully support and endorse Sisters Inside submission that the ALRC must consider… Read More

Letter to Committee against Torture

We write to express our deep concern regarding the ongoing human rights violations in Australia’s Northern Territory, particularly in Maparntwe (Alice Springs) and Darwin. These issues demand your urgent attention, especially in light of the suspension of your recent visit to Australia due to non-cooperation by the Australian Government. Read More

Closing the Gap

The National Network believes that the Closing the Gap program does very little to stop the harm and violence against the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander criminalised community. Read More

Genocide Bill

As we write this submission, we are watching genocides unfold in Palestine, Congo, Sudan and Haiti, and in similar, but different ways here in Australia. It is through these travesties that we see so clearly how much of the oppression of Indigenous peoples’ is tied to land, displacement, removal, and erasure.  Read more

Letter to Australian Rep CEDAW

We are writing to you as representatives of the National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, an organisation dedicated to advocating for the rights and dignity of criminalised and incarcerated women, particularly Aboriginal women and girls in Australia. We wish to raise our significant concerns regarding Australia’s non compliance with its obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and related international human rights standards.  Read More

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