ABORIGINAL woman Keira Brown has applied to the Supreme Court for a declaration that her human right to have an Aboriginal Health Assessment has been breached while in detention at the Alexander Maconochie Centre.

She argues that her right to be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person while deprived of liberty and the right of an Aboriginal person to not be denied the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their culture, heritage, languages, knowledge, and kinship ties has been breached.

Over two days of hearings this week against the director-general of the Justice and Community Safety Directorate (JACS), Ms Brown’s counsel Tim Jeffrey applied to the Supreme Court for a declaration that JACS had breached her human rights under sections 19 and 27 of the Human Rights Act. 

Ms Brown, represented by Canberra Law firm Ken Cush and Associates claims that the decision to deny her quality health care to a standard equivalent to that available in the ACT community and to deny her access to an Aboriginal Health Assessment on admission or within five to seven days of induction breached her rights. 

She also sought declarations that JACS had breached sections 67 and 68 of the Corrections Management Act by failing to ensure that she received an Aboriginal Health Assessment while detained in the AMC including at the time of her initial health assessment at the commencement of her detention.

An Aboriginal Health Assessment is explicitly recognised in item 715 of the Medicare Benefits Schedule and is available to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. 

The Aboriginal Health Assessment was developed in recognition of the greater range and breadth of generally challenging health issues that  Aboriginal peoples endure compared to the non-Aboriginal community.

Counsel for the director-general of JACS argued to the effect that since ACT Corrective Services had delegated responsibility for the health care of detainees in the AMC to Canberra Health Services, the director-general could not he held responsible for the alleged breaches of Ms Brown’s human rights.