Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to note that in a few weeks time, on 17 December 2010, Australia will mark the 20-year anniversary of its ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is a convention that sets out the obligations of nation-states to protect the rights and wellbeing of children as detailed in articles which go to such fundamental matters as health, education, freedom of expression, protection from violence and neglect, and access to representation and redress. In April this year, when the government announced the new Australian Human Rights Framework, it reaffirmed its commitment to human rights obligations contained within the seven core United Nations human rights treaties to which Australia is a party, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

I am sure that everyone in this place can easily understand the necessity and the value of taking a focused and specific approach when it comes to the rights of children. Children as a group are inherently dependent, especially when very young, on the direct care of adults for their very survival, and they are especially vulnerable to neglect and abuse. Monitoring the extent to which the convention is observed and the extent of progress made by nations towards meeting its objectives is the responsibility of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. In addition to the committee’s general supervisory brief, there is also a reporting obligation on all signatory nations, and it is worth noting that the Australian government submitted its fourth report in July last year.

It is also important to recognise that there continues to be scope for Australia to improve its performance when it comes to the rights of children. Indeed, following the receipt of the second and third reports, which were lodged in combination in March 2003, the UN committee, in its 2005 concluding observations, did note that, in addition to Australia’s significant progress towards realising children’s rights, there were nevertheless several areas of concern with regard to the position of Indigenous children and the issues of corporal punishment, youth homelessness, juvenile justice and children in immigration detention. Some of those areas remain a concern now. I note the comments made earlier this month by Norman Gillespie, the Chief Executive of UNICEF Australia, where he said:

We have seen improvements in the welfare and rights of children over the last two decades but we still have serious concerns including the growing disparity of opportunity for children in the bottom 20 per cent and the widening gaps between indigenous and non-indigenous children in relation to educational opportunities.

The overarching insufficiency in Australia’s case has been identified as the lack of an effective national children’s policy and accompanying assessment apparatus. As with other areas of national policy, a number of which this government has tackled and is tackling, there is a need to resolve the inconsistencies that currently exist between Australian states and territories when it comes to the rights and wellbeing of children. Having said that, this government has created, through the Council of Australian Governments meeting in 2009, two critical and far-reaching national strategies: the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2020 and the National Early Childhood Development Strategy. Both make reference to and draw impetus from the principles contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Work is also currently proceeding on a national action plan to reduce violence against women and their children. All of these initiatives are hugely welcome and they are examples of work undertaken by this government to coordinate policy matters of national importance.

I share the view of many in the children’s rights advocacy community that the creation of a national children’s commissioner would be a worthwhile addition to the existing framework. In fact, one key aspect of a commissioner’s role would be the independent and effective monitoring of the national policy framework. Other potential features of the role include a national community based education function and a role in coordinating the collection of data on the wellbeing of children and young people. As it stands, comparable national and international data is in a relatively poor state, with a number of significant gaps. The Australian Human Rights Commission, which has called for the creation of an Australian children’s commissioner, issued a discussion paper in October on the subject, which I recommend to interested members. It notes the support of UNICEF, Save the Children and the National Children’s and Youth Law Centre for this initiative.

I also want to mention the prospect of Australia’s participation in the development of an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, CRC. This draft optional protocol would provide a defined and specific international mechanism for complaints about breaches of the CRC and, among other benefits, an inquiry procedure.

It is in the nature of international agreements whose objects spring from a recognition of basic and common human rights that we consider their achievement as a global community, notwithstanding the fact that the primary obligation is for individual states to make the agreements true for their own people. Article 24 of the convention states that nations must:

… recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health.

And, in extending the obligations on states when it comes to health beyond their own children, article 24.4 says that states must:

… undertake to promote and encourage international co-operation with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the right recognized in the present article.

The Millennium Development Goals, adopted in 2000, logically draw on the specific areas of healthcare provision, listed in article 24.2, (a) to (f), which include the imperatives: to diminish infant and child mortality; to combat disease and malnutrition, including through the adequate provision of nutritious foods and clean drinking water; to ensure appropriate prenatal and postnatal health care for mothers; and todevelop preventative health care and appropriate family planning education.

I welcome the commitment this Labor government has made to increase our development aid contribution to 0.5 per cent of GNI by 2015-16. I commend the Minister for Foreign Affairs on the substantial work he has already done in this area, as well as on his clear and strong call on all nations to renew efforts in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. On this point I also want to mention the incredible work that UNICEF does, particularly the work by UNICEF Australia. I have spoken before in this place on the literally lifesaving and life-changing work that UNICEF undertakes with women and children in the developing world, whether it be in Papua New Guinea, India, Pakistan, Africa or elsewhere. When you see, as I have, initiatives that educate and support women in ways that will immediately impact on child health and when you see toddlers who are now likely to reach their fifth birthday, when previously a number of them almost certainly would not have, it restores one’s sense that we can achieve good things and we can make progress.

Last week, on 16 November, we marked the one-year anniversary of the national apology to the forgotten Australians. For me, it is natural to draw a link between that important occasion and the anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child because the forgotten Australians were children who were not protected as they should have been. Article 19.1 of the convention states:

States … shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.

More particularly, article 20.1 states:

A child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment, or in whose own best interests cannot be allowed to remain in that environment, shall be entitled to special protection and assistance provided by the State.

Yet the children who were and who are the forgotten Australians did not receive that special protection. Our acceptance of responsibility, our sorrow and our sincere apology for the suffering of the forgotten Australians has a sobering resonance in the context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. That episode in our history is a tragic demonstration of the vulnerabilities of children and of the susceptibility of government agencies to systemic failures when it comes to even the most basic protections. The two anniversaries, a month apart, should remind us of the terrible harm that can occur when the rights of children are not protected and should strengthen us in the ongoing imperative of recognising and protecting those rights. The third anniversary, in a few months time, of the national apology to the stolen generations will be another point of reflection. It is of course an anniversary which tolls a heavy warning on the unacceptable consequences of neglecting the rights of children. The stolen generations and the forgotten Australians are not people who exist in some sepia-coloured, less enlightened Australian past. They are with us now, with their pain and also their courage and resilience.

As we look forward to the celebration next month of the 20th anniversary of Australia’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, we should remember that this is not an ornamental document. It is not something we have signed up to, comfortable in the sense that such rights are a given in a country like ours, for we know that such complacency is the first step towards failing in our observation of those rights. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is instead a document to which we must renew our adherence year in, year out, and a document from which we derive a path forward to the better protection and wellbeing of children in Australia and for children everywhere.

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