Steven Caruana

Steven Caruana is a passionate human rights advocate, policy and detention monitoring specialist. He is Coordinator of the Australia OPCAT Network, a coalition of over 200 non-government organisations, academics, statutory officer holders and interested individuals concerned with the effective implementation of oversight to Australian places of detention. Steven also works as a Specialist Advisor to the Australian Human Rights Commissioner. 

Steven's past roles include being an Assistant Director with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability, dealing specifically with restrictive practices reform. Steven was a detention inspector for both the Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services Western Australia and the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman and was involved in monitoring designated mental health units in New South Wales as an Official Visitor. Steven's experience also included being a Senior Policy Officer and Senior Quality Assessor with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. Prior to his oversight work, Steven worked as an Assistant Director for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection [Home Affairs] within its immigration detention network both onshore and offshore.

Steven is an expert member and newsletter co-editor for the External Prison Oversight and Human Rights Network with the International Corrections and Prisons Association, an advisory board member for Deadly Connections Community and Justice Services, and editorial board member for Current Issues in Criminal Justice. Steven was written extensively on human rights issues for both media and academia.

In 2017 Steven was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship to explore best practice inspection methodologies and implementation experiences under the OPCAT. In 2021 he was awarded a Policy Impact Program Fellowship.