The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) (1987–1991), also known as the Muirhead Commission, was a Royal Commission appointed by the Australian Government in October 1987 to Federal Court judge James Henry Muirhead, to study and report upon the underlying social, cultural and legal issues behind the deaths in custody of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, in the light of the high level of such deaths in the 1980s. Background and history The Royal Commission was established following public calls for an inquiry into the apparently high number of Aboriginal people who had died while in custody, whether during an arrest or while under police pursuit, in pre-trial remand or in prison or youth detention centre. A campaign was begun by Indigenous activists after the death of 16-year-old John Peter Pat who died in a police cell in 1983 but gathered steam when several other Indigenous detainees were found dead in their cells, in circumstances believed to be suspicious by their families. In July 1987 Helen Corbett, a representative of the National Committee to Defend Black Rights (CDBR) took their case to the United Nations, and it was shortly after this that the government acted on it. Announced on 10 August 1987, the Commission was conducted under the Royal Commissions Act 1902 and various state and federal legislative instruments, such as Letters Patent, which governed its operation and the appointments and revocations of Commissioners. The Northern Territory issued its Letters Patent under its Commission of Inquiry (Deaths in Custody) Act 1987. The Commission was established on 16 October 1987, to inquire why so many Aboriginal Australians had died in custody, and to make recommendations as to how to prevent such deaths in the future. Terms of reference and appointments The terms of reference for the inquiry was to inquire into and report on the deaths of Indigenous people in police or prison custody or in any other place of detention between 1 January 1980 and 31 May 1989. Initially, it was believed that there were about 44 such deaths to be investigated but later 99 deaths were identified. (Another 25 deaths were held to be outside the Commission’s mandate.) 63 of the deaths occurred while the person was in police custody. The original terms of reference limited the inquiry to looking at the individual circumstances of each death, but they were later expanded to include looking at