The top legal bodies in Australia have labelled attacks against Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs "alarming" and "unprecedented", after she criticised the policy of detaining asylum seeker children.

The statement comes after Triggs faced accusations of partisanship, and irrelevance from federal government MPs and conservative commentators for her criticism of Australia's policy of detaining refugee children in high-security detention centres for long periods. Some commentators have also delved into Ms Triggs' personal and family life.

The commissioner's report detailed hundreds of cases of abuse of children in the centres, including 30 cases of sexual abuse.

In a joint press statement, the Australian Bar Association and the Law Council of Australia said that they had taken "the unusual step of issuing a joint statement because of the unprecedented attack on the President ofthe Australian Human Rights Commission for carrying out her statutory duties".

"Personal criticism directed at her or at any judicial or quasi-judicial officer fulfilling the duties of public office as required by law is an attack upon the independence and integrity of the Commission and undermines confidence in our system of justice and human rights protection," Bar Association president Fiona McLeod SC said.

Ms McLeod said the report was critical of policies carried out under both Labor and Coalition governments, and that accusations of partisanship were unfounded.

"What is being lost in the commentary is the undeniable fact that the detention of children in immigration detention has been physically and mentally harmful to them," she continued.

"The detailed examination of the issues by the Commission provides government with information upon which it can develop responses aimed at minimising, and hopefully eliminating, the harm caused to children being held in immigration detention. The Law Council is willing to offer any assistance it can in developing practical, achievable reforms to the law that will improve the situation."

The show of support from the legal profession came after Victorian Attorney-General Labor's Martin Pakula attacked conservative tabloid commentator Piers Akerman's column on the Human Rights Commissioner, which criticised her decision to put her disabled daughter into specialist care.

"Gillian Triggs is the last person to lecture anyone on the human rights of children," Mr Ackerman wrote.