Findings from the Big Banter and future plans

Megan Mitchell
National Children’s Commissioner
Australian Human Rights Commission

Centre for Children & Young People
Invercauld House, NSW
Wednesday 9 April 2014

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1. Acknowledgments

Thank you Brian for your kind introduction and thank you also to Professor Anne Graham and the Centre for Children and Young People 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 pleasure to be here at South Cross University among so many who want to protect children’s rights and hear what they have to say.

And as it is just over one year since I started my role as National Children’s Commissioner, I’d like to reflect back on the priorities in my first year, and talk about some of the emerging themes from this early work.

2. My role and the CRC

Although there have been Children’s Commissioners and Guardians in the states and territories for a number of years, my appointment was as the first National Children’s Commissioner in Australia. This was a long awaited recognition, advocated by people like yourselves, that children need a strong advocate at the national level to ensure that their interests, rights and wellbeing are being protected.

The legislation that governs my position – the Australian Human Rights Commission Act – gives me particular tools to perform this role. They include:

• promoting awareness of matters relating to the human rights of children in Australia
• undertaking research, or educational or other programs, to promote respect for, and the enjoyment of human rights by children
• examining existing and proposed Commonwealth laws on whether they recognise and protect the human rights of children
• and submitting regular reports about children’s rights.

Further, 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. I thought it important to revisit this because I see my role as a resource for children as well as a resource for all of you.

And the human rights of children underpin all of the work that I do.

As many of you are aware, the key international human rights treaty relevant to children’s rights is the Convention on the Rights of the Child, or the CRC as it is called.

It is the comprehensive human rights treaty for children, covering a wide spectrum of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights to be enjoyed by children.

It recognises that children have human rights, like adults, but that they require special protection due to their vulnerabilities. Australia ratified the CRC in 1990, and in doing so agreed to uphold the rights of all children in Australia. This year the CRC will have been around internationally for 25 years.

4. Right to be heard

One of the guiding principles of the CRC is the right to be heard, outlined in article 12. It is a very special principle and why we are all here today.

Article 12 gives to every child the right to have a say, the right to have their views taken into account, and the right for those views to be taken seriously.

For children who are at risk or vulnerable the right to be heard is critically important. Not only is it an essential component in ensuring their safety within institutional settings, but it also empowers children and helps to build their resilience and wellbeing. I have seen this first hand, when children come to realise that they have rights, they tend to sit up a little straighter and taller, grow a muscle or two, and internalise a new sense of being valued.

But of course, having your views taken into account and being respected is a fundamental right for all children, and not just those at risk.

You may be aware that the third optional protocol to the Convention will come into force this month. This is a communications mechanism to allow children and their representatives to report and seek redress for serious breaches of their rights through the UN Committee on the rights of the child. Signing up to this protocol is important because it prompts governments to ensure internal processes are fair and accessible to children. In this context I have called on the Australian Government to show leadership and sign up to and ratify the protocol. With the disturbing information emerging from the Royal Commission into sexual abuse in institutions I cannot think of a more critical time to demonstrate a commitment to empowering children and hearing their voices.

5. The Big Banter

Because I believe strongly that children have a right to be heard, my initial priority as Australia’s first National Children’s Commissioner has been to hear from children and their advocates.

Between June and September last year I conducted a national listening tour, called the Big Banter.

During the Big Banter I met face to face with well over 1,000 children and I heard from almost 1,400 kids from my online survey and reply-paid postcards. I also heard from hundreds of children’s advocates.

This slide show illustrates a few of the things which children and young people told me.

In general though, children told me that the most important things to them are being able to be with family and friends. They enjoy their freedoms and being able to play, be active, and have fun, but they also appreciate fair boundaries and rules.

They are particularly concerned about the level of violence and bullying in the community and would like to live in an environment free from drugs, alcohol and smoking. And they connect all of these together.

They worry that some children can’t afford to do or have the things they would like, and they want more things to be available for free. 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.

The views of children expressed to me in the Big Banter are highlighted in my first Children’s Rights Report, which was launched in December last year.

6. The Children’s Rights Report

As I said earlier, one of my functions is to submit to the Attorney-General every year a report on children’s rights in Australia. I will be using these reports to take stock of progress on children’s rights and to highlight key priority issues.

In this first report I have incorporated not only the views of children through the Big Banter, but also the perspective of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, national frameworks and action plans and the views of people and professionals like you who work with and for children.

Using these perspectives, my report discusses five emerging themes, which are central to ensuring the maximum protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of our children. They are:

1. A right to be heard
2. Freedom from violence, abuse and neglect
3. The opportunity to thrive
4. Engaged citizenship
5. Action and accountability.

And just this week we’ve printed off 2,000 copies of the Child Friendly version of my 2013 report to Parliament. This is a great resource for children because it explains in plain English what my role is as National Children’s Commissioner, what children around Australia told me last year, and what the human rights issues facing children are. You can access this report on my website – at www.humanrights.gov.au – and it would be fantastic if you could help spread this resource through your networks.

7. Freedom from violence

First, the importance of living free from violence, abuse and neglect has been consistently raised with me by children and children’s advocates, and is reflected in concerns at the national level and in the observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

These concerns have also been reflected in the work of the Australian Human Rights Commission on violence, bullying and harassment, including the BackMeUp campaign on bystander action against cyberbullying.

Article 19 of the CRC sets out children’s right to be protected from physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation.

Growing up without violence, abuse and neglect is fundamental to the wellbeing, growth and development of children.

And yet, as we know, the incidence of child abuse, domestic violence and other violence which impacts on children remains high. Bullying in schools continues to be widespread.

What is striking to me in my discussions with children and young people and their advocates is the impact on children of violence and abuse even when it is not directed at them personally.

Many of the children I spoke to during the Big Banter told me of their concerns about safety, and the safety of their siblings and friends, in the context of both the physical and online world.

Life would be better if nobody got hurt and children felt safe all the time.

Life would be better for children and young people in Australia if there was no drugs and violence. I’ve been beaten up and bullied. I complained about it but it didn’t fix the problem – 13 year old from the Northern Territory

Life would be better for children and young people if there was no hitting – Child from Western Australia

I think we need to understand much better the impact of violence, abuse and neglect on the mental health of children and young people more broadly.

At the same time, we need to address the prevalence of physical and mental violence, perpetrated by adults and children themselves.

Recently a study of the mental health of almost 4,500 high school students reported that 34 per cent of girls and 30 per cent of boys felt constantly under strain and unable to overcome difficulties. More than half had low levels of resilience and of those 43 per cent felt violence was an appropriate way to solve relationship issues.^[1] And 16 per cent felt it was necessary to carry a weapon.

Australia is certainly aware of the problems of violence, abuse and neglect, and we have some excellent national initiatives which aim to coordinate government action across the country to address some of the issues involved.

However, as I outline in my report, there are some key areas where we can do more to address these problems:

1. We need to ensure that there are targets and benchmarks in place in these national frameworks which can measure progress over time, as well as robust monitoring processes to learn what works, what must be improved and what must change.
2. We can encourage a proactive approach to issues of child safety, one that places a premium on prevention through enabling safe communities and environments for children.
3. And lastly, we need to build resilience among our children. This includes work to ensure the protection of children in cyber space and to equip children to be able to engage safely online.

8. The opportunity to thrive

The other theme to emerge from my report that has a significant relationship to the mental and physical health of children is the opportunity to thrive.

Article 6 of the CRC sets out a child’s right to life, survival and development. And there is no more critical right than this.

And yet in Australia there are clearly groups of children who fare worse and who do not enjoy the same opportunity to thrive as other children in Australia. Many of these children find themselves streamed into the costly tertiary systems of juvenile justice and out-of-home care, invariably putting them on a path to replicate patterns of social exclusion and disenfranchisement through the generations.

Children’s advocates I spoke to were especially concerned about vulnerable groups of children, and had specific concerns for children in out of home care, children in the juvenile justice system, asylum seeking and refugee children, especially those in immigration detention, children with disabilities, and children who are homeless.

While not expressed in these terms, many children I spoke to were also aware that there are some disparities between the circumstances of children and their families.

I have Asperger’s Syndrome. Life in primary school was very difficult. Life would be better if people that were different, disabilities, races, religions and any other differences, all accepted each other. If there was no bullying. If schools were supportive of kids with disabilities, especially invisible disabilities like Asperger’s Syndrome – 14 year old child from Victoria

Life would be better for children and young people in Australia if we were all treated with equality and we were all treated fairly. Life would be better if everyone learned the meaning of freedom – 10 year old child from Victoria

Life would be better for children if the government made sure every child had all the rights. I think every child should have food and water – An Australian child

I believe that a key to building resilient children and breaking the cycle of disadvantage faced by vulnerable families is investing in early intervention and prevention services across the nation.

This was one of the strongest themes to emerge in my meetings with child advocates, and is supported by a large body of research.

The work commissioned by the Benevolent Society in 2013, Action Early Changing Lives, shows that it is important to do more to tackle issues for children early on, before they become difficult to fix and expensive for the community.

Evaluations of some early intervention programs in the US found that children who were at risk of poor outcomes, who participated in early intervention, and whose parents received extra support with parenting, were more likely to finish school and find higher paying jobs, and were less likely to be involved in crime, compared with those children who did not receive extra support.

In Australia, while there are some promising individual models based, current investment in early intervention, prevention and family support across the nation is patchy, uncoordinated and poorly integrated.

As National Children’s Commissioner I will continue to advocate for a national commitment to early intervention and prevention work during my term.

9. Focus on suicide and self-harm

This year, however, I am embarking on a project to shine a light on the shocking rates of intentional self harm among children.

2012 data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics now ranks intentional self-harm as the leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 24.^[2] And ABS data for the 2008 to 2012 reference period shows that for children aged 5-14 years old, there were 57 children who died because of suicide. ^[3]

This tragic loss of life is an issue of national concern, and throughout 2014 I will examine how children’s rights can be better protected in the context of child and youth suicide and intentional self-harm.

Children and young people frequently report a connection between bullying and abuse by peers, and self-harm and suicide of children and young people.

This connection was also reflected in the content of the short videos created by 13 to 17 year olds for the Commission’s BackMeUp competition on taking positive action against cyberbullying.

While limited data exists in Australia to adequately monitor trends or differentiate aspects of self-harming behaviour in children, the data that we do have is disturbing.

The number of suicide deaths by children and young people is small in total, but significant as a proportion of all deaths within this age group.

And there are likely to be more children under this age who have died by suicide, but this information is not readily available.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people 15-19 years old are 5.2 times more likely to die by suicide than other young Australians.^[4] And while youth suicide rates nationally have been slowing since 1997, there has been a confronting increase in the rates of youth suicide in particular areas, including the Northern Territory.^[5]

The number of young people who die by suicide in Australia each year is relatively low compared with the number who self-harm. It is difficult to estimate the rate of self-harm as hospital separation data is the main source of information. But we do know that in 2011 over 8,000 children present to hospital for self harming incidents, and evidence suggests that only around 10% of young people who self-harm present for hospital treatment.^[6]

Further, it is estimated that the number of young people who have engaged in self-harm is many times greater than those who have died by suicide.

Certain groups of children and young people who are more vulnerable to self-harming behaviours than others. A recent report by the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, called Growing Up Queer, highlighted the high rates of bullying and self-harming among young LGBTI people.^[7]

In addition, the Australian Human Rights Commission has reported in our 2013 Asylum Seekers, Refugees, and Human Rights: Snapshot, the high incidence of self-harming associated with vulnerable groups of detained asylum seekers.

It is my hope that through this project we can learn from the experiences of children and young people, as well as from families, educators and expert practitioners about how we can better prevent, monitor and respond to self-harming and suicidal behaviour in Australia.

10. Conclusion

In conclusion, and so we really do ensure we listen carefully to what children are telling us, I want to thank Ann Graham who is helping us to dig deeper into the material and stories from children which I collected last year during my national listening tour. This will provide an important benchmark and record of children’s views at the start of my role and in continuing to set my forward agenda.

Once again, thank you for the opportunity to speak today and for your continued commitment to the right of children to be heard.

 

^[1] Resilient Youth Australia survey, reported in The Age, 9 March 2014.
^[2] Australian Bureau of Statistics, Causes of Death, Australia, 2012 (2014), Cat No 3303.0, Table 1.3, line 39. At http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/3303.0~2012~Main%20Features~Contents~1 (viewed 27 March 2014).
^[3] Australian Bureau of Statistics, note 1.
^[4] Australian Bureau of Statistics. note 1, Age. At http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/3303.0~2012~Main%20Features~Age~10010 (viewed 27 March 2014).
^[5] Northern Territory Government, Gone Too Soon: A Report into Youth Suicide in the Northern Territory, p 7.
^[6] De Leo D, Heller TS, Who are the kids who self-harm? An Australian self-report school survey 181(3) Med J Aust 2004, p 140-144.
^[7] Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, Growing Up Queer (2014), p 5.