Children’s Rights in Australia: a scorecard

Overview

This scorecard tells the story of how well children’s rights are protected and promoted across Australia. It tells us where we are doing ok, where we should be doing much better, and where we do not yet know enough to make an assessment of our performance. It is intended to help hold Australian Governments to account for the wellbeing of our children, now and into the future.

The year 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), the most complete statement of children’s rights ever produced. In September 2019, Australia appeared before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (the Committee) to answer questions about how it is working to advance the rights of children in Australia. The Committee provided Australia with a range of recommendations, called Concluding Observations, to improve its performance in relation to children’s rights. The Concluding Observations (2019) called for urgent measures to be taken in order to protect children:

• from violence
• in alternative care
• in relation to mental health
• from environmental damage and climate change
• who are refugees, seeking asylum and in situations of migration, and
• in the administration of justice.

A summary of the observations made by the Committee on the Rights of the Child is included in the appendix.