TONY JONES, PRESENTER: The Australian Government has failed to respond to a highly critical United Nations report which called for the release of more than 40 refugees who are being detained indefinitely.

Most of the group are Sri Lankan refugees who were given negative security assessments by ASIO.

Tomorrow marks a year since the United Nations human rights tribunal condemned their treatment.

Australia was given six months to respond to the report. Now another six months has passed and the Federal Government is yet to provide a response.

John Stewart has the story.

JOHN STEWART, REPORTER: The group being held indefinitely in Australian detention centres are mostly from Sri Lanka. They've been assessed as refugees, but were given a negative security assessment by ASIO because of alleged links to the Tamil Tigers separatist group.

12 months ago, a UN human rights committee delivered its report about the Australian refugees' continued detention.

STEPHEN BLANKS, NSW COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES: The United Nations committee determined that Australia has committed 150 breaches of international human rights standards by detaining indefinitely these refugees who've got adverse security assessments.

JOHN STEWART: The UN committee called for the detainees to be released and given compensation.

STEPHEN BLANKS: The main concerns were lack of reasons given to these people. The level of reasons given is totally inadequate and there's no real opportunity to challenge the assessment by ASIO. But then, most fundamentally, these people are deprived of their freedom, their liberty, their most fundamental right just on an assessment by a secret process.

JOHN STEWART: The United Nations wanted the Australian Government to respond to the report within six months. Now a year has passed and there's still no response.

A spokesman from the Attorney-General's department said, "The Australian Government is currently considering its response to the UN Human Rights Committee. The views of the committee are not binding under international law, however, the Australian Government gives careful consideration, in good faith, to any views received from the committee. The Government has notified the committee that it will respond as soon as possible."

STEPHEN BLANKS: Australia's Government is thumbing its nose at the UN, saying, "We're not interested in what you think about human rights."

JOHN STEWART: Five years ago, the Tamil Tigers lost a long-running civil war against Sri Lankan Government forces. The Tamil Tigers have been declared as a terrorist organisation by some countries and a senior security analyst has told Lateline that some of the group detained in Australia are suspected of arms trafficking and fundraising.

Labor Foreign Minister Bob Carr fostered stronger relations with Sri Lanka, and earlier this year, the new Federal Government donated two former patrol boats to Sri Lanka to help stop asylum seekers reaching Australia.

TREVOR GRANT, JOURNALIST & AUTHOR: Australia has already returned some 1,500 Tamils, both the Labor and Coalition governments, under a special agreement they have with the Sri Lankan Government. They don't have those agreements with other countries from where asylum seekers come from, so that makes it very, very easy to return them.

JOHN STEWART: Human rights lawyers say that in Britain, many former Tamil Tiger members have been released.

STEPHEN BLANKS: People who've been assessed as a national security risk in the UK - that is, refugees from Sri Lanka - are in the community. Yes, they're under supervision, but they're managed in the community. There's no reason why Australia can't do that with these people and in fact it'd be a lot more cost-effective.

JOHN STEWART: A former Federal Court judge is reviewing the refugees' ASIO security assessments and some of the group have been released, but it's unclear how long the review will take.

John Stewart, Lateline.