A/HRC/17/2 regarding the ratification of Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, ensuring appropriate conditions of detention. Noting that the current system of mandatory and indefinite immigration detention was not in compliance with Australia’s international obligations, the Commission continued to urge the Government to reform the system accordingly. It also welcomed the acceptance of recommendations 122, 124 and 125 on the understanding that any arrangements for the regional processing of asylum seekers would comply fully with the Refugee Convention and Australia’s human rights obligations. 478. The European Region of the International Lesbian and Gay Federation also on behalf of Australian Coalition for Equality, urged Australia to introduce a comprehensive human rights act and to enact legislation addressing systematic discrimination and promoting substantive equality. Commending measures on the equal treatment of same-sex partners in de facto marriages, they regretted Australia’s rejection of the recommendation to allow same-sex partners to marry. They noted the recent amendment to national sex discrimination laws, whereby state and territory laws were not discriminatory when requiring gender diverse persons to divorce before affirming their gender. They called on Australia to reconsider its position on marriage equality and to make public commitments to introducing anti-discrimination laws and policies in accordance with the Yogyarkata Principles. 479. Human Rights Watch was concerned that Australia’s policies and practices regarding refugees and asylum seekers might run counter to its international obligations. Using as an example a bilateral agreement currently being pursued, it called on Australia to abandon such agreements. It also noted that asylum seekers were detained as a matter of course, indicating that, of 6,730 people in immigration facilities, 6,079 were undergoing refugee status assessments. It urged Australia to end mandatory detention of asylum seekers, and to enact legislation providing that they are only detained when strictly necessary and as a last resort, and that children are not routinely detained. It also urged Australia to set limits on immigration detention, to provide for regular judicial review, and to ensure that detainees have equal access, among others, to legal counsel and physical and mental health services. 480. Verein Südwind Entwicklungspolitik urged Australia, as the only country in the world with such a system, to end its mandatory, not time-limited and non-reviewable detention system of all unauthorized arrivals, including children, and to incorporate international human rights obligations into domestic law through adoption of a federal human rights act. Meanwhile, it urged Australia to comply with its key detention values, especially concerning asylum seekers arriving by boat, to make greater use of communitybased detention, particularly for the most vulnerable, to stop third-country processing, and to amend immigration detention laws. It noted that Australia had rejected the recommendation concerning a compensation scheme for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders disregarding their rights to equality before the law and restitution for past wrongs. 481. The Indian Council of South America expressed doubts that the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples would not be used as rubber stamp mechanism. It referred to the partial acceptance of recommendation 24, and rejected the notion that this would not amount to the continuing denial of the rights of Indigenous peoples on the ground. It noted that Australia had yet to implement the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples. It questioned Australia’s intention to implement its obligations under the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and stated that the rejection of the establishment of a national compensation plan for stolen generations was unacceptable. 482. The Islamic Human Rights Commission was concerned at the alienation and marginalization experienced by Muslim citizens, who face prejudice and hostility, and 156 GE.12-13630