‘Listen to Children’ 2011 Child Rights NGO Report Updates

     

Thank you to all supporters of the Listen to Children, 2011 Child Rights NGO Report.

A total of 84 organisations and individuals endorsed the Report, in whole or in part. The Steering Committee greatly appreciates all of your valuable contributions, feedback, and support. The Steering Committee would also like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Australian Federal Attorney-General's Department, the Sidney Myer Fund and the Humphries Family Fund.

The Report has been received and considered by the United Nations Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

About the Report

Despite the lack of efforts of successive Australian Federal Government to implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CROC), Australia is a wonderful place for most of its children. However, Australia is not a wonderful place for all of its children, especially Indigenous children. In order to make Australia better for its children, we must learn to listen to them.

Despite Australia’s ratification of the CROC in 1991, Australia has yet to effectively incorporate human rights into policy and legislative framework to benefit children. There continues to be unacceptable gaps in the legal protection of children’s rights. Significant harm to the lives, survival and healthy development of far too many children has occurred over the 20 years since ratification:

• 1,048 children are currently being held in immigration detention;
• almost half of all homeless people in Australia are under the age of 18;
• Aboriginal children aged 10-17 are 24 times more likely to be jailed than non-Aboriginal children and Aboriginal children are 10 times more likely to be in out-of-home care.

The Report also acknowledges that there has been some progress over the past five years. Positive developments include: commitment to the National Early Childhood Development Strategy, its implementation of a National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children, the Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, and the commitment to Closing the Gap on Aboriginal health and education.

The Report is an overview of Australia’s performance as it relates to each article of CROC and recommends that the Australian Government implement the following core initiatives:

• CROC should be comprehensively incorporated into Australian law;
• a comprehensive National Plan of Action for Children and Young People should be created and implemented, in partnership with children and civil society; and
• an independent National Children’s Commissioner should be established.

Children share the same values as everyone else, and Australia must learn to listen to children’s opinions.

A full copy of the report can be downloaded here.

If you are having any problems with downloading the report, please email Ahram at ahram.choi@ncylc.org.au.

Further Information

For further information contact:

Ms Ahram Choi, Child Rights Project Manager, at ahram.choi@ncylc.org.au