What does the Children's Rights Report 2016 say?

What is the Children’s Rights Report 2016?

Every year, the National Children's Commissioner provides a child-friendly version of her Children’s Rights Report. This is the child friendly version of the 2016 report, which looked into the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) in the context of children and young people detained in youth justice centres or adult facilities.

What are human rights?

Our human rights are the things we all need to have a good life. They also make sure we are kind and fair to each other.

Children’s rights are written down in a document called the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

As a child, you have the right to:

• be treated fairly
• have a say about decisions affecting you
• live and grow up healthy
• get information that is important to you
• be safe, no matter where you are or who you are with
• be cared for and have a home
• privacy
• get an education
• know who you are and where you come from.

The United Nations

There is a special group of people called the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. These people watch out for children all over the world and tell governments how they can better protect children’s rights.

In 2012, the Committee looked at what life is like for children in Australia and told the Australian Government what it could do to make things better. They said that Australia does a lot of good things for children and young people, but that the Government can still do more. They were worried that some children:

• are being treated unfairly
• are being bullied and hurt
• are not getting the education they need
• can’t live with their parents
• are not as happy or as healthy as they could be
• do not have homes
• are in trouble with the law and need help
• are locked up
• are exposed to violence.