Ignore the United Nations.
That's the message from a prominent child protection advocate to the Queensland Government after the UN ruled laws keeping high-risk sex offenders behind bars breached their human rights.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee last week ruled Queensland's Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act, which is designed to keep sexual offenders in prison for rehabilitation after they have served their sentences, breached the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The UN committee ruled Australia had an international obligation to release convicted criminals - including sex offenders - from prison once they had fully served their sentence.
"The concept of feared or predicted dangerousness to the community applicable in the case of past offenders is inherently problematic," the UN committee stated.
It also raised concerns about the practice of evaluating of sex offenders' risk of re-offending.
"It is essentially based on opinion...even if that evidence [is] consistent in the opinion of psychiatric experts. But psychiatry is not an exact science."
However, local Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston said the United Nations' ruling neglected its chief decree of the Rights of the Child.
"I am shocked - really, really shocked," Ms Johnston said.
"The UN's own Rights of the Child states we should place the interest and safety of our children first and foremost. The detention of high-risk sex offenders does this. Are we here to protect the rights of our children or the rights of criminals?
"It feels like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing in the UN."
The Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act was introduced by the Beattie government in 2003 to keep convicted sexual offenders deemed by the Supreme Court to be at a high risk of re-offending behind bars.
The same law was later introduced in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.
A notorious convicted sex offender lodged the complaint with the UN committee, whose decision is not legally binding.
The ruling was a major victory for the sex offender, who had previously appealed - unsuccessfully - to the High Court.
The offender, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is understood to be on remand awaiting trial on other charges.
Another 30 sex offenders in Queensland are reportedly detained under the same provisions.
The latest ruling followed a complaint to the UN against the equivalent law in NSW, lodged by pedophile Kenneth Davidson Tillman, which was also upheld.
Ms Johnston said it would be highly unlikely for the federal government to overturn the Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act, since the High Court of Australia had upheld the legislation.
But legal academic Patrick Keyzer of Bond University, who helped prepare the offender's complaint to the UN committee, said the rulings provided an opportunity for the states to reform rehabilitation schemes for sex offenders.
"These decisions establish that prison is for criminals, and cannot be used for other purposes, including the preventative detention of sex offenders," Mr Keyzer said.
"There is a need for suitable facilities that are not prisons to provide accommodation for these sex offenders while efforts are made to assist them with transition to the community."
State Attorney-General Cameron Dick said the government would carefully consider the UN's findings and would work with the Commonwealth "to provide a response in due course".
"However, the protection of the community is, and always will be, our primary concern," he said.
"We make no apologies for having the toughest sex offenders laws in the nation, which have been referred to the High Court and found to be valid."
