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Prosecutions to seek a Special Order of the court to increase the custodial sentence of ayoung person by 18 months where the young person has a record of re-offending and hascommitted a serious offence. The prior offending histories of Indigenous young peopleand their greater likelihood of receiving a custodial sentence mean that they are morelikely to be affected by these provisions. ‘Aboriginal youth and country youth arediscriminated against by this section as one of the qualifying pre-conditions for thespecial order is an exhibited pattern of repeated detention for any offence and thesegroups of offenders are more likely to receive detention sentences for minor offences’(ALSWA submission 127 page 351). The ALSWA called for the Special Orderprovisions to be repealed.The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner has found these sectionsof the WA legislation to breach,• article 3 of CROC because the interests of the child are made secondary to the protectionof the community when sentencing,• article 9(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 37(b)of CROC which provide protection against arbitrary arrest and detention because detention isarbitrary if it is imposed by a process contrary to ‘accepted notions of justice’,• the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice(the Beijing Rules) because rehabilitation is no longer seen as an important or dominantconsideration, and• article 37(b) of CROC and recommendation 92 of the Royal Commission into AboriginalDeaths in Custody which require that imprisonment be imposed as a last resort and only for theminimum necessary period are breached (Dodson 1995 pages 38-39).Submissions to the Inquiry called for a review of juvenile justice laws in WA as ‘amatter of urgency’ (Kimberley Land Council submission 345 page 74, ALSWA submission 127and Broome and Derby Working Groups submission 518).A recent South Australia proposal to introduce general deterrence as an additionalsentencing principle in the Young Offenders Act 1993 did not proceed. The proposal wasto make general deterrence a discretionary consideration in the Youth Court and amandatory consideration for juvenile offenders having more serious matters determinedin the higher courts.The Queensland Government has recently introduced legislation to increase themaximum penalty for juveniles from 14 years imprisonment to life imprisonment forcertain offences and to transfer more cases from the Children’s Court to the jurisdictionof the District Court, which is also likely to increase sentences. Other amendments haveintroduced ‘community protection’ as an additional principle in the legislation. AQueensland Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council report on juvenile justice noted that‘despite increased sentencing options and the introduction of Aboriginal elder cautioning,research … indicates that the Juvenile Justice Act, to date, has failed to prevent norreduce the rate of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander representation in the juvenile