While the UN Special Rapporteur was in Broome: Dr Felicity Gerry KC makes joint submission on Indigenous justice and education

Greens List is proud to report that our member Dr Felicity Gerry KC has made a joint submission to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Dr Albert K. Barume, during his official country visit to Australia from 2 to 13 November 2026, the first visit to Australia by this mandate since 2017 (OHCHR). The submission was made while the Special Rapporteur was in Broome, one of the stops on a visit that also includes Canberra, Adelaide, Darwin, the Torres Strait Islands, Townsville and Sydney (OHCHR). He will present his report to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2027.

A submission from direct experience

Dr Gerry KC, wrote the submission jointly with an Indigenous educator who lives and teaches in a remote community. It addresses two linked failures against Indigenous peoples in the Northern Territory and beyond: mandatory sentencing and prison conditions, and an education system that fails Indigenous children in remote communities.

The submission draws directly on Dr Gerry's leadership of the Indigenous Justice and Exoneration Project, which secured the exercise of the prerogative of mercy for Zak Grieve, a young Indigenous man serving life imprisonment under NT mandatory sentencing laws for a murder at which the sentencing judge found he was not present (ABC News). It urges the Special Rapporteur to recommend the repeal of mandatory sentencing in the NT, a specific finding on accessories caught by complicity laws, urgent action on prison conditions including the use of watch houses, and attention to neurodiverse accused Indigenous people.

On education, the joint submission recommends findings that the Australian education system fails Indigenous children in remote communities and that traditional curricula are not effective for Indigenous kids. It points to two-way learning, the method of teaching Indigenous children by incorporating Indigenous knowledge, languages, culture and on-country learning, and highlights proven models. It also recommends structured Indigenous youth mentoring, with round-table sessions in which young Indigenous adults mentor younger Indigenous children supported by Elders and educators.

In Western Australia the same week

The timing of the submission is more than symbolic. While the Special Rapporteur was hearing evidence in Broome, Dr Gerry was herself in Western Australia, visiting a remote community to inspire Indigenous children to pursue careers in law and education. Her message to those children, that they can be the lawyers, teachers and mentors of the future, is the practical counterpart to the submission's argument that the systems currently in place too often push Indigenous children out of classrooms and too often into a pipeline to incarceration.

What comes next

The Special Rapporteur has expressed regret that meetings with officials in Darwin, the Torres Strait and Townsville, and visits to youth detention centres will not take place because state governments declined to engage with the mandate (OHCHR). The joint submission asks that this refusal itself be recorded as a finding. Dr Gerry and her co-author have asked the mandate to name the school-to-prison pipeline for Indigenous children as the central human rights problem it is.

You can read the submission here.

Greens List congratulates Dr Gerry KC on this important contribution to international human rights advocacy, which reflects the List's commitment to leadership in the profession and beyond (Greens List).

Media enquiries: Dr Felicity Gerry KC is available for comment via the Greens List clerks on +61 3 9225 7222 or clerkb@greenslist.com.au