Youth Week – #RaiseTheAge | 4th – 14th April 2022

Did you know that in Australia, children as young as 10 years old are being sent to prison?

This Youth Week (4-14^th April) the Illawarra Legal Centre would like to raise awareness of the Raise the Age campaign.

In just one year across Australia close to 600 children aged 10 to 13 years were locked up and thousands more were hauled through the criminal legal system.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are disproportionately impacted by these laws and pushed into prison cells at even higher rates, accounting for 65 per cent of these younger children in prisons.

There has been a chorus of calls both nationally and internationally from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, expert United Nations bodies, human rights organisations, medical and legal bodies, and academics for Australia to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility.

Children need to be loved and supported so they can reach their full potential. Not locked up.

You can help to #RaiseTheAge by visiting the website below and signing the petition, sharing a photo of you at 10 and emailing your Local MP.

https://www.raisetheage.org.au/

#RaiseTheAge

#YouthWeek2022