With us, not to us Towards policy and program development in partnership with children

2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Vicary ◽  
Mike Clare ◽  
Judy Tennant ◽  
Tine Hoult
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
New South ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Advisory Groups ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
South Wales ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
Western Australian

Internationally, there is a growing trend for children and young people to participate in decisions affecting their lives (Bellamy 2002; Hart 1997). The active participation of children and young people is clearly articulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). However, despite the international movement towards children's participation, there are precious few opportunities for Australian children and young people to contribute to policy and research debate in a sustainable manner. A review of the literature demonstrates that there are few ongoing research or policy advisory groups made up of children and young people, and those that are operational are generally auspiced by Children's Commissioners (e.g. New South Wales) and policy offices addressing the issues of children and young people.In Western Australia, when children and young people are consulted, the dialogues tend to be short-term and issue-specific in nature. This paper will briefly discuss a number of techniques employed to engage Western Australian children and young people in dialogues about important issues affecting their lives. Using these examples, the barriers that challenge efficacious children's and young people's participation are discussed; finally, some suggested ways forward are delineated.

scholarly journals Children’s Views on Children’s Rights: A Systematic Literature Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 835-871
Author(s):  
Nicola Fairhall ◽  
Kevin Woods
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
Children’S Views ◽  
Broad Level

Abstract Children’s rights are set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This systematic literature review aimed to investigate children’s views of children’s rights, at a broad level. Nine papers were included, from a range of countries and contexts. They all accessed the views of children and young people (aged up to 18 years). A content analysis was carried out using a recursive process of hybrid aggregative-configurative synthesis, and themes within children’s views and factors that may affect these were identified. These were ‘awareness of rights’, ‘value placed on (importance of) rights’, ‘impact of having/not having rights fulfilled’, ‘realisation and respect of rights’, ‘equality of rights’, ‘identifying and categorising of rights’, and ‘factors that may affect children’s views’. These were developed into a progression of rights realisation and implications for practice and further research were considered.

Disability

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonali Shah
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
The Social ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations

Traditionally, disability was considered to be a personal trouble, as opposed to the social issue and public policy concern that it is today. Children with physical and cognitive impairments were shunned away from mainstream society into asylums or workhouses. They were typically discussed and analyzed through a medical lens, pathologized and conceived as a social problem to be regulated, cured, or killed. The emergence of ideologies constructing disabled children and adults as dependent victims unable to contribute to the development of society encouraged the development of charities for disabled people and exploitation of textual and nontextual narratives of the “vulnerable disabled child” to evoke sympathy and induce the public’s financial generosity. The ideological mantra that impairment was the cause of individual and family disadvantage was embedded in the cultural consciousness of society and thus influenced how disabled people (across the lifecourse) “made themselves known” and were made known to others (i.e., as inferior, developmentally delayed, financial and emotional burdens to their family and society). It led to the expansion of the rehabilitation industry and new social policies that focused on altering or incarcerating the impaired body. However this was challenged by the upsurge of the British Disabled People’s Movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Based on the ideas of the Union of Physically Impaired against Segregation, the movement campaigned for social equality and human rights legislation in all spheres of social life and generated a new understanding of disability. With the historic shift in thinking about both childhood and disability as a public issue rather than a personal matter, there has been increasing interest in the social world of both disabled people and all children and young people. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (particularly Article 12) and the Children Act 1989 initiated subsequent developments with regard to children having a right to be involved in decisions about their lives. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities means that disabled children today are the first generation to grow up in an era of full international civil rights. This bibliography lists works that include the voices and experiences of disabled children and young people in research about their everyday lives, including health and medical treatment, education, and identity. These works demonstrate the richness and diversity of disabled children’s individual lives, thus challenging the traditional conception that disabled children are a homogenous group.

Corporal punishment in New South Wales: A call for repeal of section 61AA

2021 ◽  
pp. 1037969X2110555
Author(s):  
Laetitia-Ann Greeff
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Corporal Punishment ◽  
Physical Violence ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
South Wales

Corporal punishment is lawful in the home in all Australian states and territories. In early 2021, the Tasmanian Commissioner for Children and Young People called for a repeal of s 50 of the Criminal Code Act 1924 (Tas) which permits the use of corporal punishment in the home, noting that society had moved on from the regular canings of the early 20th century when the law was passed. This article supports the call to abolish the defence of reasonable chastisement (lawful correction in NSW) by repealing s 61AA of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) so that children can have the same protections from physical violence as adults.

Seeing the Relationship between the uncrc and the Asylum System through the Eyes of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children and Young People

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Connolly
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Relationship

The rights and experiences of unaccompanied asylum seeking children living in industrialised nations are rarely seen from the perspectives of children themselves. This paper takes a narrative based approach to report on the lives 29 unaccompanied asylum seeking young people in the uk. The research from which this paper emerges explored the ways in which they thought the rights of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) were or were not being realised on their behalf. It highlights the significance of making the promises that are held within the uncrc into viable strategies of protection for unaccompanied asylum seeking children as they search for a new place to belong to and a new place that belongs in them.

scholarly journals Children’s Representation in Family Law Proceedings

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-98
Author(s):  
Charlotte Mol
Keyword(s):  
Family Law ◽  
New South ◽  
Minimum Standards ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The Family ◽  
Pertinent Question ◽  
Judicial Proceedings ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
Legal Frameworks

In the debate on child participation in family law proceedings, a pertinent question is whether or not to provide children with representation and if so, how to provide it. Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (uncrc) provides minimum standards for the child’s right to express views and to do so, in judicial proceedings, through a representative. This article takes these minimum standards as a yardstick to evaluate the legal frameworks of child representation in the family law proceedings of four jurisdictions: Australia (New South Wales), France, the Netherlands and South Africa. On the basis of a systematic legal comparison and evaluation, this article presents a “compliance report card” and concludes with new insights and questions regarding children’s representation and Article 12, uncrc.

Devolution and youth justice in Wales

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Drakeford
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Youth Justice ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Specific Approach ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Points Of Interest ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
United Nations Convention

This article discusses youth justice services in Wales in the context both of devolution and the wider social policy agenda of successive Welsh Assembly Governments. It sets out the operating arrangements and outcomes achieved by Youth Offending Teams in Wales, before arguing that a specific approach has been developed to policy and practice in this field in the post-devolution period. The article traces the main features of this approach, locating it in the wider contexts of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the development of broader children’s policy in Wales. The discussion ends with an account of the most recent developments in Welsh youth justice, suggesting that it provides ample points of interest for those concerned both with the development of devolution in general, and services for children and young people in trouble with the law, in particular.

A scaffold for participation in agency work

2003 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 30-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth C. Reimer
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Human Services ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Practice Models

The following summary of a literature review on children and young people's participation in the welfare sector was written in response to a need to understand this concept within the context of human services work in New South Wales. This need became apparent through work being done at UnitingCare Burnside around children and young people's participation. Examination of the literature on participation revealed an increase in discussion around the issues. While this has included exploration of definitions, history, practice, models and factors enhancing effective participative practice, there has been a dearth of writing linking these. The literature review attempted to provide a scaffold that could be used to support agency workers as they attempt to build meaningful, effective, strong and reciprocal partnerships with children and young people. This concise summary of the literature review has sought to highlight the major supports found to provide a scaffold for participative agency practice with children and young people.

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