Restraint and Seclusion of Students with Disabilities

Abstract

Students with disabilities are being subjected to restraint and seclusion in some schools in Victoria, Australia. The practices are being used for purposes such as punishment, behaviour change and harm prevention. This article analyses the legality of the practices under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Australia has ratified. It concludes that the use of restraint and seclusion on students with disabilities in some Victorian schools has violated children’s rights, under both domestic and international human rights law. The Australian and Victorian governments have failed to recognise the presumption against the use of restraint and seclusion on children with disabilities in school and have failed to justify the associated rights limitations. A cultural shift is required to ensure that children with disabilities no longer experience unlawful rights violations, injuries and mental anguish as a result of restraint and seclusion in the very institutions that have a duty of care to protect them.