QCEC Student Protection In-Service Day for Catholic School Authorities

Megan Mitchell
National Children’s Commissioner
Australian Human Rights Commission

QCEC Student Protection In-Service Day for Catholic School Authorities

The Auditorium,
Father Bernard O’Shea Centre, 19 Lovedale Street, Wilston, Brisbane, QLD

Friday 16 May 2014

Introduction and Acknowledgments

I would like to begin by thanking the Queensland Catholic Education Commission for inviting me to speak today.

I also acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which this meeting takes place, and I pay my respects to elders both past and present.

It is a real pleasure to be here in Brisbane and to speak to so many people who are all committed to the protection of children and young people across Australia. I will speak to you about what is being done and what needs to be done to help ensure that the voices of children and young people are heard by Australian society generally and decision-makers in particular.

Role of the Commissioner

As many of you will be aware, although there have been Children’s Commissioners and Guardians in the states and territories for a few years, my appointment is as the first National Children’s Commissioner in Australia; this was a long awaited recognition that children need a strong advocate at the national level to ensure that the interests and rights of Australian children are being protected.

My role is to be a national advocate for the rights and interests of children, to embed mechanisms to ensure a focus on children’s interest, enable their participation as agents of their own lives and to provide national leadership and coordination on child rights issues.

The legislation governing my position – the Australian Human Rights Commission Act gives me tools to perform my role such as the ability to undertake research or education or other programs to promote respect for, and the enjoyment of human rights by children. Further to this I may give particular attention to children who are at risk or vulnerable and I am to consult with children, as well as other relevant people and agencies, as appropriate.

As the National Children’s Commissioner, the Convention on the Rights of the Child provides the main impetus for my work. The Convention provides a comprehensive framework, covering a wide spectrum of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights to be enjoyed by children, and makes it clear that children have the same human rights as adults but that they are also entitled to special protection because of their unique vulnerabilities as children. Australia ratified the Convention in 1990 and in so doing agreed to uphold the rights of all children in Australia. This year the Convention celebrates 25 years as part of the international system of human rights law.

Child Rights Report Recommendations:

In my Child Rights Report 2013 I included six recommendations on actions that should be taken to ensure the enjoyment and exercise of human rights by children in Australia by creating a stronger national framework for advancing Children’s rights. Summarily the Australian Government needs to formally respond to the Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child about our progress under the CRC and its Optional Protocols, with the Government acceding to the Optional Protocol to the CRC on a Communications Procedure, the Third Optional Protocol. We also need to establish relevant data holdings and analytics covering all the key domains of children’s rights under the CRC with the Australian institute of Health and Welfare extending its current focus from child 0 to 14 to 0 to 17 years so as to be consistent with the CRC’s definition of the child. We also recommend that the Government includes a component that reports on how it is giving effect to the CRC in its regular monitoring and evaluation of national policy reforms and initiatives. A more comprehensive outline of our recommendations can be found in our Children’s Rights Report which is available through the Commissions website.

Article 12 – The Right to Be Heard

One of the guiding principles of the Convention is the right to be heard, as outlined in article 12.

Article 12 gives to every child the right to have a say, to have their views taken into account, and the right for those views to be taken seriously. Article 12 is of fundamental importance because a child’s right to have their views heard and respected is a gateway to all of the other rights in the Convention.

Ensuring the voices of children are heard and respected is an essential component in building and maintaining child-safe organisations and communities. Listening and taking into account the views of children is empowering for children and will contribute to individual and collective resilience,

Having your views taken into account and being respected is a fundamental right for all children but it is of particular significance for children who are at risk or vulnerable, such as children in out-of-home care and those in the juvenile justice system.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has acknowledged that Australia has put some mechanisms in place for the participation of young people, but that significant gaps remain, in particular for children under 15. The Committee also raised concerns about the inadequacy of mechanisms that enable child participation in the policies and decision-making affecting them in schools. However this challenge goes well beyond just the classroom. For example, individual complaints systems, which many adults use to address injustices or raise concerns, often do not adequately engage children and young people. How can children who suffer injustice or harm seek redress if such mechanisms are inaccessible and inappropriate to them?

The Big Banter

I believe that children and young people are the experts of their own lives and I am especially interested in how we can promote the meaningful participation of children in the decisions and processes that affect them. This is why one of my first tasks as the National Commissioner was to conduct the Big Banter listening tour in order to directly engage and hear from children and their advocates about what issues are most important for children, to inform my priorities for action, and to hear about how I could best engage in my future work.

Through the Big Banter I met face to face with well over 1000 children and have heard from almost 1400 kids from my online survey and reply-paid postcards. I also heard from hundreds of children’s advocates. The views of children expressed to me during the Big Banter featured heavily in my first Children’s Rights Report.

In general children told me that the most important things to them are being able to be with family and friends and to be safe. Children enjoy their freedoms and being able to play, be active and have fun but they also appreciate fair boundaries and rules. They worry that some children can’t afford to do or have the things they would like, and they are particularly concerned about the level of violence and bullying in the community.

They also told me that they want people to show more respect for one another and they want to be respected and listened to. And they definitely want to have a say and to have their voice heard.

Being able to be heard, raise concerns, and be taken seriously is of fundamental importance to children for many reasons. Hearing from children is empowering for them, but it also helps adults to get things right.

Every day, policies, programs and laws are being shaped that impact directly and indirectly on children.

As the experts of their own lives, ignoring the experiences of children and young people will invariably lead to interventions that just don’t work for them. Privileging the voice of children, really listening to what they have to say and taking it on board is a powerful message to children about their value and also acts as a strong safeguarding measure for children.

We would not be having a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses of Childs Sexual Abuse, if those institutions had acted in the best interests of children and had found ways to hear from and respect the views of children.

In a recent speech Justice Peter McClellan, Chair of the Royal Commission, said that a common response amongst victims participating in private sessions were feelings of empowerment and relief at finally having their story heard and responded to and that they felt listened to, accepted and important for the first time. Justice McClellan also acknowledged that it is “only very infrequently that children have the opportunity to provide input into the systems and means for their protection” but that the views of children about the things that make them feel both safe and unsafe in institutions may prove to be one of the most valuable pieces of research undertaken by the Commission. It is critical for children to have a voice and to feel acknowledged and empowered to speak out if they feel that they are being harmed or in danger of being harmed.

Children are rich resources for information that we need to harness to their fullest.

What is being done:

At the Australian Human Rights Commission we have many projects being put in place to build upon the Big Banter tour to facilitate the voice of children being heard such as the ‘Discrimination: Don’t Cop It’ project which aims at making the Commission’s complaints process more child friendly and to facilitate children and young people knowing that they have avenues through which they can make a complaint if they feel the need to.
Details of these are available through the Australian Human Rights Commission’s website.

In response to the need to educate children themselves about their rights we have also just released our child-friendly version of the Children’s Rights Report which is accessible from our website.

The UN Committee has raised concerns about inadequate mechanisms for taking into account the views of children below the age of 15 years and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children; they also noted a lack of adequate mechanisms for meaningful participation in schools. The UN Committee states that children need access to complaint mechanisms which provide:

• Access to appropriate information including about policies and complaints procedures in formats appropriate to the child’s age and capacities;
• Adequate support if they need it;
• Feedback on the weight given to their views; and
• Procedures for remedies or redress.

Child-Safe Organisations:

The Royal Commission, in its Third Issue Paper, recognised that child safe policies and practices such as codes of conduct, complaints handling procedures and the training and supervision of staff and volunteers is required to reduce risks and keep children safe in institutions such as schools.

We at the Australian Human Rights Commission believe that there should be formal requirements for the implementation of child-safe practices and risk management mechanisms in child related organisations. As I mentioned earlier Article 12 of the CRC establishes the right of every child capable of forming their own views the right to express their views in all matters affecting them and to have their views considered. One of the key elements in establishing a child-safe organisation is to make sure that children’s’ views and concerns are heard and then acted upon. In our submission to the Royal Commission we identified essential elements of establishing a child-safe organisation and made several recommendations in relation to this.

As you would all be aware - to be a child-safe organisation you must show a commitment to child safe practices and procedures and take “a preventative, proactive and participatory stance on child protection issues”;^[1] the adoption of a national accreditation system, voluntary or mandatory, for ‘child-safe organisations’ would assist in building child-safe communities and be a visible assurance that organisations are implementing, to a certifiable standard, child-safe policies and procedures.

The principles and essential elements of establishing a child-safe organisation are detailed in a document that you would all be very familiar with - the National Framework for Creating Safe Environments for Children: Guidelines for Building the Capacity of Child-Safe Organisation, 2005. The Framework establishes that one of the central elements in the abuse of children is the exploitation of power over the child to gain their submission or silence and suggests that practices must focus upon the empowerment and participation of children and the establishment of organisational systems which encourage children to be listened to.

The Framework acknowledges that consulting children and seeking their views about their safety can assist the development of harm prevention strategies, child-safe organisations and the empowerment of children. One of the key elements in establishing ‘child safe organisations’ is to make sure that children’s views and concerns are heard and acted upon which requires processes which are accessible and meaningful to the child and which taken into account the evolving capacities of children and their best interest.

The National Safe Schools Framework:

The National Safe Schools Framework is another framework that you would all be very familiar with. Schools can be one of the safest places in the community for children and young people and the National Safe Schools Framework is there to provide guiding principles and practical tools for the development of safe and supportive school communities. The National Safe Schools Framework does not see itself merely as a programme but as a culture and a philosophy that acknowledges the centricity of the school system to the wellbeing and education of young people and it is vital that we have a culture of child protection in all communities across Australia.

I know that the Queensland Catholic Education Commission is committed to the National Safe Schools Framework and have included the Safe Schools Audit Tool and Planning Kit as part of your Student Protection Resources for schools. I also know that you have been proactive in engaging and educating schools about other important initiatives in the protection of children and young people such The Education and Training Legislation and Amendment Act which extends the mandatory reporting responsibilities of school staff members in the Education Act. It is important to have both the formal and informal protection of children working together like this. I hope to have the opportunity to talk with you about your experience with these frameworks and what you see as working well as well as what challenges exist in their implementation for you.

Barriers to Participation and Recommendations

The Third Optional Protocol:

The Australian Human Rights Commission strongly advocates for the Australian Government to ratify the Third Optional Protocol, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure. The second recommendation of my 2013 CRR asked the Australian Government to give effect to the UN Complaints protocol for Children, improving children’s access to legal and complaints systems which are supportive, accessible and able to remedy breaches of their rights is absolutely necessary if we are to take the views of children seriously.
The Third Optional Protocol provides that individual children, once they have exhausted available domestic remedies, can submit complaints to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child about specific violations of their rights under the CRC and first two Optional Protocols.

As well as providing children for the first time with their own UN complaints mechanism, a key goal of the new Optional Protocol is to actually encourage governments to re-examine and improve their own domestic options and solutions for breaches of children’s rights. As the National Children’s Commissioner I find it very concerning that Australia has not yet ratified this Protocol because it denies children the ability to submit complaints in cases where the available domestic remedies have failed. It also demonstrates an alarmingly low level of interest by the Australian Government to undertake the important process ahead of improving the accessibility of our legal systems and complaints processes for children.

In my 2013 report I identified two main action areas in ensuring our children’s right to be heard:

Genuinely Involving children in issues that affect them:
During the Big Banter Tour many noted that complaints systems did not facilitate the participation of children. Both the Family Court and child protection systems were seen as needing to be more child friendly and many raised the issue of the lack of child voices in the courts. This was also identified as a problem in the 2013 Carmody Report where the Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry recommended amendments to the Child Protection Act 1999 (Qld) to require the views of children and young people to be provided to the court; this recommendation has been accepted by the Queensland Government.

It is heartening to note that of the 121 recommendations made by the Carmody Report the Queensland Government has accepted 115 of these in full with the remaining 6 being accepted in principle showing a commitment to reforming the child protection system of Queensland to better ensure the safety and wellbeing of the children and young people in your State.^[2]

There are a number of ways, at the policy development level, that governments can engage children in the process, including through schools, formal youth advisory boards, web and face-to-face consultations on specific issues. They can also use targeted focus groups as part of research projects, youth parliaments and groups like the Australian Youth Forum, as well as working in partnership with community organisations with significant child and youth representation.

Ensuring that existing mechanisms for resolving complaints and concerns are accessible and available to children:
Children and young people are especially vulnerable to having their rights and freedoms abused, we need existing processes for receiving information about breaches of rights and freedoms to be accessible to children. For example, young people who are workers should be able to understand their rights at work and have them protected. There should also be clear information about the rights of children in their interactions with police and law enforcement officials. Additionally, children should know the laws and their rights in respect of cyber safety and bullying, how they can be protected from online exploitation and abuse, and where they can go to for help. There are opportunities for us to develop children’s understandings of their own rights and responsibilities through the existing school systems, in work environments and through the electronic media and social networks.

Suicide and Self-Harm Prevention Project:

Before I finish I would also like to mention that recently I have called for submissions for my 2014 project examining children’s rights issues in regards to issues and services related to intentional self-harm and suicidal behaviour.

Article 6 of the CRC gives to every child the inherent right to life and intentional self-harm and suicidal behaviour in young people is a serious issue in Australia and overseas. The latest statistics show that intentional self-harm was the leading cause of death among Australian children and young people aged 15 to 24. This examination will look into why children engage in intentional self-harm and suicidal behaviour and the barriers which prevent them from seeking help. I invite all interested individuals and organisations to make submissions on the key issues.

I have provided you with a copy of our call for submissions which details the key issues, it can also be found through the Commission’s website. Submissions close Monday June 2.

Conclusion

The vast majority of the children I have spoken to, as well as some adults, are not aware that children have rights. This is a fundamental problem that must be addressed. We need to continue to build the knowledge in children and the community as a whole about the rights of children and young people. All organisations that make decisions about children and young people or act in their interests must ensure that they have the resources, tools and facilities to ensure that they hear the voice of those they are working for, the children. In promoting the importance of a child’s view about their own life we can safeguard and empower our children and use their knowledge to create a society where they not only are but feel visible, valued and safe.

^[1] 5 Child Wise, Choose with Care ®: A handbook to build safer organisations for children, Child Wise, Melbourne, 2004, p 18 at http://www.childwise.net/page/37/online-publications - from our submission.
^[2] http://www.childprotectioninquiry.qld.gov.au/publications - pg 472 of the report.