Rights of the Child anniversary

Australia became a signatory to the United Nations Convention of Child Rights 30 years ago. To mark this milestone, ACU’s Institute of Child Protection Studies has launched a series of articles focused on child rights.

The articles cover a variety of perspectives on child rights:

• how art can help us understand the experiences of children who have been in detention
• how day-to-day family interactions support child development
• how children’s voices and children’s rights can be amplified in family law
• how sexuality education for children and young people promotes wellbeing and safety
• how alternatives to smacking can help children learn
• how a Nordic approach to childhood enhances children’s rights.

A celebration of child rights builds on the pioneering research that the institute conducted for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. This research gave a critical boost to our understanding of children’s perceptions of safety, the importance of the right of children to participate, and ways of enabling a child’s right to safety. The research also led to recommendations by the Royal Commission that endorsed child rights and the public health model for child protection as framing principles.

Findings from the research also lead to our current work on measuring children’s safety and embedding child rights in youth-serving institutions. Another piece of work informed by child rights is the Keeping Kids Central toolkit, a practice tool for practitioners, championing child rights implementation.

ACU is part of the broader work of Catholic institutions to incorporate child rights in policy and governance, and practice settings. The work of many ACU researchers is contributing to improved protections for the safety of children in the aftermath of the findings of the Royal Commission.