The 53rd UN Youth Australia national Conference – Opening Ceremony

1. Introduction and Acknowledgements

Good morning everyone and thank you to Claire for the introduction.

Before I begin I too would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we gather on today; the Ngunnawal people and pay respects to elders past and present. I would also like to thank Aunty Agnes for the welcome to country.

Thank you to Conference Convenor, Sophie Corea, and Tim Matthews, UN Youth Australia National President, for inviting me here today to speak at the conference opening ceremony. It is an honour to be here among so many enthusiastic and exceptional young people.

2. The Role of the Commissioner

First, I’d like to tell you a little bit about my role as National Children’s Commissioner, because my job is all about you and in fact belongs to you.

I was appointed in the role of Australia’s first National Children’s Commissioner around 15 months ago. The responsibilities of my role are set out in the Human Rights Act and I work at the Human Rights Commission alongside other Human Rights Commissioners who cover areas like sex, age and race discrimination, and the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Some of my key duties are to

• Be a national advocate for the rights and interests of children and young people – this includes all children and young people up to eighteen years of age.
• Promote children’s participation in decisions that impact on them.
• Provide national leadership and coordination on child rights issues.
• Promote awareness of and respect for the rights of children and young people in Australia.
• Undertake research about children’s rights.
• Look at laws, policies and programs to ensure they protect and uphold the rights of children and young people.

A major part of my role involves submitting a yearly report to the parliament and this gives me an opportunity to alert the community to human rights issues and concerns for children and young people.

3. The Big Banter

My first priority in the role was to hear from children and young people and their advocates about what issues were most important to them and how I could make a difference. I called this listening tour, the Big Banter. No doubt this - listening to others - will be a major part of your approach to your role as UN Youth Delegates.

Through the Big Banter I met with well over 1,000 children and young people face-to-face, and heard from a further 1,500 or so online and through the post. I’ve also heard from hundreds of people who work with and for children and young people.

During the listening tour many different issues were raised.

Primarily, however, children and young people said that they want to be safe and spend time with their family and with their friends. They are concerned with the level of violence and aggression and bullying in the community, and they would like to live free from drugs, alcohol and smoking.

Some children and young people worry about not being able to afford to do or have the things they would like, and they want more things to be available for free. They also worry that other children may not be able to afford or access all the things they need. They have an innate sense of fairness and caring for others.

And they definitely want to have a say. They had many exciting ideas about how life could be better, including how they themselves might become more engaged in policy, politics and community, and I hope this is something you will have the opportunity to explore here at the Conference.

I used the words and ideas of children and young people I spoke to, along with those of adults, to set out five key goals or themes to guide my work during my five year term.

The first relates to the right to be heard: This is about ensuring young people can participate in decisions that affect them, including making sure that they have access to dispute resolution mechanisms.

The second theme is about delivering a community free from violence, abuse and neglect. Too many children and young people in this country are exposed to violence or are the victims of violence.  We need to do much better at enabling safe environments for children within families, communities and institutional settings.

As you know not all children and young people have the opportunity to thrive. Even in a rich country like Australia, some children and young people live in poverty, have poor health, live in unstable and overcrowded housing, are disconnected from school and experience social exclusion and isolation. So my third theme goes to ensuring that vulnerable children and young people have every opportunity to reach their full potential and have their rights protected along with their peers.

The fourth theme relates to engaged citizenship: children and young people need to know about their rights and the rights of others, and should be encouraged to take an active role in the realisation of those rights through the democratic process. Young people need to be recognised as young citizens in ways like this very conference promotes.

The last theme that I outlined in my report relates to action and accountability: At present Australia has limited ways of systematically thinking about the rights of children and young people in framing policies, programs and laws and I want to change that around. We also need to do much better at tracking how we are doing in protecting and advancing the rights of children and young people. Improving this is a long term goal I have set for my role.

Who has heard of the Convention on the Rights of the Child?

I want to talk to you a little about this because this is the fundamental platform for my work.

4. Convention on the Rights of the Child

The Convention on the Right of the Child is the most ratified international human rights treaty in the world. It has significantly changed the way that children and young people are thought about and are cared for on a national and international level. The Convention establishes that children and young people have the same human rights as adults, but are also entitled to special protection due to their unique vulnerabilities. The rights that children and young people hold are intrinsic to their lives and healthy development – like to right to be safe, the right to care and support, to a family, to education and health care, to a home, the right to express yourself and be heard.

Australia ratified the Convention way back in 1990 and in doing this promised to protect and uphold the rights of children.

It is astounding that it took 23 years before Australia appointed a National Commissioner to advocate for the advancement of the rights of children and young people set out in the treaty Australia had signed up to all those years ago.

And while Australia is generally a good place for children and young people to grow up in, it does mean we are behind in a number of areas.

Many of these were set out by the Committee on the Rights of the Child when it commented on Australia’s progress in 2012, and I included a summary of these in my first report. Conventions like the Convention on the Rights of the Child are supported by a particular UN Committee that focuses on that Convention and the rights contained in it. Australia, like other countries, must front up to this Committee every five years, and is next due to report in 2018. I hope to achieve a much better report card next time around.

The Convention includes four ‘general principles’ considered pivotal to the implementation of all other rights contained within the convention. These are:

• The right to non-discrimination (Article 2)
• The child’s best interests as a primary consideration (Article 3)
• The right to life, survival and development (Article 6)
• Respect for the views of the child (Article 12).

I want to particularly focus on Article 12, the right to have agency and voice. Article 12 gives to every child and young person the right to be taken seriously and be heard in matters affecting them. These views should be given weight in accordance with the child’s age and maturity.

In 2012 the UN Committee 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 and in schools. However, I believe the challenge here goes beyond the classroom.

I am especially interested in how we can promote meaningful participation of children and young people in the decisions and processes that affect them, at both the individual level but also in terms of government policies and laws.

Individual complaints systems, which many adults use to address injustices or raise concerns, most often do not adequately engage children and young people. How can children who suffer injustice seek redress if mechanisms are inaccessible and inappropriate? I do not believe we would need a Royal Commission into sexual abuse of children in institutions if as young people those now adults were encouraged to speak up.

This is especially important for children in vulnerable situations, like those involved in care and protection systems, juvenile justice, and family court proceedings where the decisions that are being made have a significant impact on their lives, both immediately and in the long term.

In this sense, being able to be heard, raise concerns, and be taken seriously acts as a strong safeguarding measure for children.

But hearing from children is not only empowering for them, it helps adults to get things right. Every day, policies, programs and laws are being shaped that impact directly or indirectly on children and young people. As the experts in your own lives, ignoring your experiences and perspectives will invariably lead adults to intervene in ways that just don’t work.

On the Big Banter I was constantly blown away by wisdom and knowledge that children and young people hold. This is a rich resource that we need to harness to its fullest.

Privileging the voice of children and young people, really listening to what they have to say and taking it on board, is a powerful message to children about their value.

Realising that they have rights and understanding that what they have to say will be respected is incredibly empowering, it’s like a coat of armour a child or young person can put on to protect them and keep them strong.

5. Current projects

I am currently involved in two projects at the Human Rights Commission you might have heard about which involve the rights of children and young people and that I encourage you to follow and even become involved with.

The first is an Inquiry, led by the President, Gillian Triggs, on the treatment of children and young people in immigration detention. This inquiry is looking at the extent to which the conditions under which children and young people are living and growing up are preventing the realisation of their fundamental rights and healthy development - such as the right to education, good health, play and recreation. I have been closely involved with this Inquiry which will report later this year and have visited a number of detention centres to interview families and young people. This has been a difficult thing to do as many of the children and young people living in these situations are withdrawn, depressed and anxious. In particular many are not coping with the stresses they see their parents going through. We truly hope the findings of this Inquiry will lead to an improvement in the treatment of refugee asylum seeking children and young people.

A second project I am leading is an investigation into intentional self-harm and suicidal behaviour(s) amongst children and young people. In part this arose from some of the feedback I received during the Big Banter, but also because of the alarmingly high rates of suicide and self-harm among Australia’s young people. The aim is to gain a much better understanding about what is happening for young people, and what can be done to improve supportive interventions and increase help seeking behaviour.

To date I have sought written submissions, held a number of roundtables and engaged in a range consultations across Australia. While I am talking to a number of adults as part of this work, I also need to hear directly from young people about their experiences and to get their advice. So I encourage those of you who are interested or have a story to tell to get onto the Human Rights Commission website (www.humanrights.gov.au) and make a contribution in whatever way feels right. It might also be a topic you want to discuss over the next five days.

6. ‘Forces for Change’

‘Forces for Change’.

For an Australian United Nations Youth Conference, I cannot think of a better title. As others have noted, the United Nations has been a force for change on the international stage for many decades and has made a major contribution to building a more just society.

But it is you as young people, who are the real force – it is your energy and passion that will drive change in this country and around the world, down the line and out into the future.

During this conference you will learn about what you can do to make difference locally and globally, you will learn what it means to be an advocate and change agent, you will explore the many forms that leadership can take, and you will exchange ideas on how to tackle to big issues facing us all.

7. Conclusion

So in concluding, I want to commend you for putting yourselves in this space, and taking part in the 53rd UN Youth Australian Conference.

The vast majority of the children and young people I have spoken to, let alone adults, are not aware that young people, or even adults, have human rights. This is something I want to change. But I can only do this will your help.

So I as you fine tune your mojo as forces for change over this week, I hope you will also evolve into human rights champions, help me spread the word and enlist other young people in that journey.

It should be a wild ride for the next five days, so enjoy the conference and thank you for having me.