Human rights groups say the royal commission investigating institutional responses to child abuse has the power to examine allegations of abuse and neglect of asylum seekers on Nauru.
Three groups, headed by the Human Rights Law Centre, today released legal advice backing their claim.
The advice was given to the royal commission a year ago after it ruled it could not investigate events in another country.
“In a nutshell, the advice says that while the royal commission can't obviously go to Nauru and exercise coercive powers ... it can look at the response of the Australian government and its contractors to child sexual abuse,'' Hugh de Kretser from the Human Rights Law Centre said.
The move follows the leaking of 2000 critical incident reports which detail abuse, self-harm and neglect claims by asylum seekers.
Marc Purcell from the Council for International Development urged the commission to accept the legal advice.
"There is commonwealth responsibility for the harm being caused to people on Nauru and children,'' he said.
