Dujuan Hoosan speaks at the UN assembly. Picture: SBS NewsSource:SBS
‘Stop putting kids in j*ail’: Dujuan Hoosan becomes youngest person to address Human Rights Council
A 12-year-old boy has become the youngest person to speak at the UN, demanding Australia change one of its most controversial practices.
Dujuan, from Arrernte and Garrwa country, spoke of how he felt like a failure in school and how at the age of 10, he was nearly sent to j*ail.
“I was always worried about being taken away from my family and I was nearly locked up in j*ail,” Dujuan said.
“But I was lucky because of my family because they know I am smart, they love me and they found a way to keep me safe.
“There are some things I want to see changed. I want my school to be run by Aboriginal people. I want adults to stop putting 10-year-old kids in j*ail.
“I want, in my future, to be able to learn strong culture and language. I hope you can make things better for us.”
Dujuan became disinterested in school. Picture: Closer ProductionsSource:Supplied
Dujuan is the star of a new documentary called In My B,lood It Runs, that will screen at the Human Rights Council.
The documentary, filmed when Dujuan was 10, runs through his struggles to properly engage with Australia’s education system and touches on him almost ending up at Darwin's notorious Don Dale youth justice centre.
Close to 100 per cent of all youths detained in the Northern Territory are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids.
At 10, Dujuan had started skipping school and quickly found himself in trouble with the p*olice.
After an a*ltercation with p*olice, he almost ended up inc*arcerated — but his family intervened.
Dujuan with his mum in Maya Newell's documentary 'In My B*lood It Runs'. Picture: Closer ProductionsSource:Supplied
In all Australian states and territories, 10 years is the uniform age of c*riminal responsibility.
The Northern Territory child protection and detention royal commission in 2017 recommended that age be lifted to 12 years but the Territory Government is yet to do so despite accepting the final report recommendations.
The Human Rights Law Centre in Australia says the minimum should be 14 years.
Australian governments would have “a lot of explaining to do” to the UN in relation to the Convention of the Rights of the Child and sending those as young as 10 to p*rison or offshore asylum seeker camps, Shahleena Musk said, an indigenous Larrakia woman and lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre.
“These harsh and out of date l*aws are f*orcing too many Aboriginal kids into the quicksand of the c*riminal legal system,” she told AAP.
Dujuan was saved from p*rison. Picture: Closer ProductionsSource:Supplied
Dujuan Hoosan speaks at the UN assembly. Picture: SBS NewsSource:SBS