(AP) 14:10 AEDST Tue 5 Mar 2002
Refugee centre operators face US lawsuit
Human rights lawyers plan to sue the company running Australian
detention centres in an American court, using a 200 year-old US law
designed to protect against piracy.
Senior Murdoch University law lecturer Fernad de Varennes, one of a
number of Australian and American lawyers involved in the action, said
the group would claim Australian Correctional Management (ACM), under
the direction of the federal government, violated human rights.
An application was due to be lodged with a federal court in Florida
within the next few weeks.
"We will submit that this prolonged detention constitutes prolonged
arbitrary detention as is prohibited in human rights and international
human rights," Mr de Varennes told ABC radio.
"Secondly, that the overall conditions in a number of the detention
centres, especially perhaps Curtin (in Western Australia) and Woomera
(in South Australia), constitutes cruel or unusual treatment or punishment."
He said people outside the United States could use an American court to
argue their basic human rights had been violated outside the US.
"There are certain basic rules of international customary law, the law
of nations, which permits a claim in court," he said.
"Individuals outside the US can go to a federal court if their basic
rights under international law has been violated outside the US.
"This law was initially used to deal with situations like piracy."
Mr de Varennes said the Australian government could only be named as a
joint defendant in the claim because it was immune from US prosecution.
"The ACM is only acting in this manner because it can only do what the
government actually tells it to do and it can only release individuals
who have been processed by immigration," he said.
"But, at the end of the day, that does not excuse any violation of human
rights."
Mr de Varennes said if the Florida court found the ACM had breached
human rights, it could order the company to pay detainees millions of
dollars in damages.
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