Presentation to the ANZCDR&PG Annual Meeting by Megan Mitchell
Children's Rights
Megan Mitchell
National Children’s Commissioner
Australian Human Rights Commission
ANZCDR&PG Annual Meeting
50 Lonsdale Street Melbourne VIC 3000
Friday 28 March
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Acknowledgments
I would like to begin by thanking Professor Jeremy Oats 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 real pleasure to be here in Melbourne, and to have the opportunity to hear directly from experts in child death prevention.
As you all know, the uncomfortable truth in this country is that each year far too many children and young people take their own life. The 2012 Causes of Death data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, released three days ago, shows that intentional self-harm is the leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 24.[1]
And ABS data for the 2008 to 2012 reference period shows that for children aged 5-14 years old, there were 29 boys and 28 girls who died because of suicide.[2] And a further 129, 15 -19 year olds died by suicide in 2012 alone.
Although the number of deaths counted as suicide of children under the age of 15 is small, it is a significant number in terms of the proportion of all deaths within this age group.
I believe 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.
Given this priority, which I will say more about later, it is opportune that I am here today in a forum devoted to the prevention of child death.
And as it is just over one year since I started my role as National Children’s Commissioner, it’s appropriate for me to reflect back on the priorities in my first year, and to talk about some of the emerging themes from this early work.
My role and the CRC
It is clear that children’s emotional, mental and physical health directly affects their ability to enjoy their fundamental rights.
But first, let me talk a bit about children’s rights and how they apply to my work?
As many of you will be aware, although there have been Children’s Commissioners and Guardians in most states and territories for a number of years, my appointment is as the first National Children’s Commissioner in Australia. This was a long awaited recognition that children need a strong advocate at the national level to ensure their interests, rights and wellbeing.
The legislation that governs my position – the Australian Human Rights Commission Act – gives me some tools to perform this role. They are:
- promoting awareness of 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 a report to the Parliament through the Attorney-General in each year about children’s rights.
Further, the Act provides that 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.
The human rights of children and the framework that is the Convention of the Rights of the Child underpin all of the work that I do.
This Convention is the key international human rights treaty relevant to children’s rights. It is the most 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 because of their particular 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.
Right to be heard
One of the guiding principles of the CRC is the right to be heard, as outlined in article 12.
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, such as children in out-of-home care, those in the juvenile justice system, refugee and asylum seeker children, and just those children struggling with the vagaries of growing up, the right to be heard is critically important. Not only is it an essential component in ensuring their safety, but it also empowers children and helps to build their resilience, capabilities and wellbeing.
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 another 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 aggression, violence and bullying in the community and would like to live in an environment free from drugs, alcohol and smoking. And interestingly, they connect all of these behaviours 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 were heavily featured in my first Children’s Rights Report, launched in December last year.
The Children’s Rights Report
As I said earlier, one of my functions is to submit a yearly 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 priority issues and areas for action.
In the first report I 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 themes, which I consider central to ensuring the maximum protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of our children. They are:
- A right to be heard
- Freedom from violence, abuse and neglect
- The opportunity to thrive
- Engaged citizenship
- Action and accountability.
Freedom from violence
Today I want to focus on two of these in particular.
First, the importance of delivering a world where children can live free from violence, abuse and neglect. This has been consistently raised with me by children and children’s advocates, and has been reiterated by 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 racism, violence, bullying and harassment, including through the BackMeUp campaign on bystander action against cyberbullying, and the Racism: It stops with me campaign. On this score, the recent proposed changes to the Race Discrimination Act are deeply concerning in the messages we are sending to our children. And that message is - it is perfectly reasonable to vilify and intimidate other human beings in just about every public setting, and that there is no protection for you if it happens to you.
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.
And yet, as we know, the incidence of child abuse, domestic violence and other violence which impacts on children remains unacceptably high. Bullying in schools continues to be widespread, with most studies showing that at least a quarter of all children experience serious bullying. Further, self-harm and suicide - a form of self-directed violence - remains a significant problem for young people.
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. Here are some of the things they said:
Life would be better if nobody got hurt and children felt safe all the time. An Australian Child
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 and modelled 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.[3] 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 particular areas where we can do more to address these problems:
- We need to ensure that there are targets and benchmarks in place in these national frameworks which can measure progress over time and track how children are faring, as well as robust monitoring processes to learn what works, what must be improved and what must change.
- We need also to encourage a proactive approach to issues of child safety, in particular one that places a premium on prevention through enabling safe communities and environments for children.
- And lastly, we need to build knowledge among our children about their rights and how this knowledge can protect them.
The opportunity to thrive
A related theme to emerge from my report 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 down 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 by investing in early intervention and prevention.
This was one of the strongest themes to emerge in my meetings with child advocates, and is supported by a large body of research.
For example, 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 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.
While there are some promising individual models and programs, current investment in early intervention, prevention and family support across the nation is patchy at best.
As National Children’s Commissioner I will work during my term to progress these issues. However, these challenges will require collaboration, shared vision and purpose, and ongoing commitment to the ideals given expression through the CRC.
Suicide and self-harm
This year I plan to undertake a targeted project as part of my work plan that focuses on self-harm and suicide by children and young people.
Addressing self-harm relates to all five themes outlined in my report. As noted earlier, both children and child advocates have raised with me concerns about the impact of violence, abuse and neglect, and in particular its impact on certain groups of children.
Children often report a strong connection between bullying and abuse by peers, and self-harm and suicide of children and young people. And this has also been alluded to in a number of tragic cases which have recently appeared in the media.
This connection was also strongly reflected in the content of the short videos created by 13 to 17 year olds for the Commission’s BackMeUp 2012 1nd 2013 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. In 2012, 21.9% of all deaths involving males aged 15-19 was due to suicide (n=70), and the rate rose to 28.7% for males aged 20-24.[4]
Alarmingly, 32.6% of all deaths in 2012 involving females aged 15-19 was due to suicide (n=59), a significant rise from the previous year (n=35).[5]
And there are likely to be many more children under this age who have died by suicide, but as you know this information is not readily available.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people 15-19 years old are more likely to die by suicide than other young Australians.[6] 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.[7]
The number of young people who die by suicide in Australia each year is relatively low compared with the number who self-harm. But It is difficult to estimate the rate of self-harm because the main source of information is hospital separation data. Evidence suggests, however, that only around 10% of young people who self-harm present for hospital treatment.[8]
According to latest available data, between 2010 and 2011, 7,597 children and young people aged 15-24 were hospitalised for self-harm, in addition to 565 children 14 and under[9]
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. One UK study puts the figure at 40 to 100 times as great. If such a trend was replicated in the Australian context the figures would be truly alarming.
Again, there may be certain groups of children and young people who are more vulnerable to self-harming behaviours than others. A recent survey 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, with 33% reported having harmed themselves, and 16% having attempted suicide.[10]
My Children’s Rights Report last year recommended that the Australian Government establish relevant data holdings and analytics covering all the key domains of children’s rights – and clearly, in relation to child injury and death, this is an area where there are large data gaps and inconsistencies at the national level, including in the reporting against useful age cohorts.
Through this project, we intend to 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 by children in Australia.
Conclusion
I hope that I have been able to provide you with an insight into what I see as some of the key human rights issues facing children and young people, and I look forward to working together with you to improve the health, well-being and rights of children in Australia.
Again, thank you for the opportunity to speak today and I welcome an opportunity to hear your thoughts.
[1] Australian Bureau of Statistics, Causes of Death, Australia, 2012 (2014), Cat No 3303.0, Table 1.3, line 39 (viewed 27 March 2014).
[2] Australian Bureau of Statistics, note 1.
[3] Resilient Youth Australia survey, reported in The Age, 9 March 2014.
[4] Australian Bureau of Statistics, note 1, Table 11.6.
[5] Australian Bureau of Statistics, note 1, Table 11.6.
[6] Australian Bureau of Statistics. note 1, Age (viewed 27 March 2014).
[7] Northern Territory Government, Gone Too Soon: A Report into Youth Suicide in the Northern Territory, p 7.
[8] 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.
[9] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW): Pointer S 2013. Trends in hospitalised injury, Australia, 1999–00 to 2010–11. Injury research
[10] Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, Growing Up Queer (2014), p 5.