Australia’s indefinite detention of people with mental impairment breaches human rights, advocates say

Experts argue system lacks proper monitoring and effectively disappears' people, sometimes for decades

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Australia's use of indefinite detention for people with cognitive impairments is a breach of human rights and the outrageous" failure to implement a proper monitoring regime is rendering people with a disability invisible from public view, experts say.

More than 1,200 people with a mental impairment are being indefinitely detained in Australia despite not having been convicted of a criminal offence. Each state and territory uses a variety of orders to enforce indefinite detention, including in prisons and hospitals.

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