Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy 2020

1. About this Policy

1.1 Purpose

This Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy (this Policy) outlines the commitment of the Australian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) to making our workplace and our work child safe. It informs all staff of their obligations to act ethically towards children and gives guidance on the processes and procedures necessary to ensure child safety and wellbeing across all areas of our work.

This Policy also describes how the Commission implements the ten National Principles for Child Safe Organisations. The relevant principle is included at the beginning of each section.

The National Principles implement key recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. They seek to build workplace practices that prevent child sexual abuse and which proactively address it where it occurs. The National Children’s Commissioner has been a leading advocate for such principles and was tasked with their design. The principles hold extra importance for the Commission in ‘walking the talk’ and ensuring that its own practices adopt a human rights-based approach.