tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/child-rights-7831/articlesChild rights – The Conversation2023-03-13T13:37:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1986022023-03-13T13:37:17Z2023-03-13T13:37:17ZChild victims of sexual violence aren’t heard or understood: Nigerian study<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510685/original/file-20230216-20-wtgoaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Child abuse is above the global average in Nigeria. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/december-2022-nigeria-abuja-schoolgirls-sit-in-camp-news-photo/1245730561?phrase=children%20%20nigeria&adppopup=true">Annette Riedl/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Violence against children is a global problem. A <a href="https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/documents/child-maltreatment/global-status-report-on-violence-against-children-2020/who-gsrpvac-2020-magnitude-consequences-infographic-en.pdf?sfvrsn=7660e3db_18">2020 Global Status Report</a> revealed that every year, almost one billion children globally encounter some form of violence, such as neglect, physical abuse and sexual abuse.</p>
<p>All forms of violence affect children in different ways, but sexual violence in particular <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01488376.2021.1979710">embodies trauma that lasts for a long time</a>. </p>
<p>It is linked to negative health consequences <a href="https://www.unicef.org/media/89096/file/CSAE-Report-v2.pdf">such as</a> reproductive health issues, impairments in brain functioning, poor immune system and higher risks of sexually transmitted diseases. Beyond the poor physical health outcomes, it also leaves victims with a wide range of psychological problems including <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0234201">trauma</a>, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10826084.2019.1618337">depression</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7960751/">anxiety</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/child-maltreatment#:%7E:text=Key%20facts&text=One%20in%205%20women%20and,form%20of%20forced%20sexual%20contact.">World Health Organization reports</a> that one in five women and one in 13 men report having been sexually abused as a child. </p>
<p>The Nigerian government has <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/HRBodies/CRC/StudyViolenceChildren/Responses/Nigeria.pdf">policies</a> aimed at addressing the varying forms of violence against children, as well as strategies to provide care, rehabilitation and reintegration of victims. Protection for children is legislated in the <a href="https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/5568201f4.pdf">Child’s Rights Act 2003</a>.</p>
<p>But a <a href="https://www.unicef.org/nigeria/media/6696/file/16%20facts%20document.pdf#page=8">UNICEF report</a> based on 2014 figures says one in four Nigerian girls and one in 10 Nigerian boys have been sexually abused.</p>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cch.12975">Our study</a> explored the subjective experiences of female adolescent survivors of child sexual violence who tried reporting their experiences to adults. We found that they were sometimes discouraged from speaking out, and were even blamed for what had happened to them. Adults should learn to give children safe spaces where they can be heard, understood, believed and supported.</p>
<h2>What we did</h2>
<p>We interviewed 11 female adolescents who had experienced at least one episode of sexual abuse or molestation. Participants for this study were part of a larger study in which participants were randomly selected by trained research assistants during a child sexual violence awareness campaign and asked if they were willing to participate in the study. Those who accepted were told about the nature and purpose of the study. They were also assured of confidentiality and told they were free to withdraw from the study at any point, without any consequences. Consent was equally given by school authorities, and informed consent to participate was obtained from the participants. </p>
<p>The researchers decided to focus on female adolescents aged 15 to 17 who had experienced at least one incident of sexual abuse or molestation and who could communicate in English. The types of abuse included in the study ranged from kissing to fondling genitals and vaginal intercourse. The responses from 11 survivors were included in the present study. Eleven responses are considered adequate as studies exploring lived experiences do not require a large sample. The interviewees were students from different secondary schools in Benue State, north-central Nigeria, who were attending a child sexual violence awareness programme. Consent to undertake the study was obtained from their parents. </p>
<p>The students were informed about the nature and purpose of the study and those who agreed to take part were interviewed in sessions which lasted around six to 13 minutes for each participant.</p>
<p>The interviewees discussed issues around their experiences of sexual abuse and opening up about it. Audio recordings of the interviews were transcribed and analysed. Here we highlight the themes that recurred.</p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>We wanted to understand what happens within the primary environment of the victim and how front line health and social workers as well as parents and others can extend support to victims.</p>
<p>We found that parents, teachers, siblings and other relatives were implicated in decisions not to speak up about abuse. Because of the reactions that some victims received in the process of speaking out, eight of them concluded that it was better to stay silent.</p>
<p>All the participants reported they had begged the abusers to stop, to no avail. Some had cried. One interviewee said she “screamed silently”. </p>
<p>The interviewees said that after the abuse incidents they began to look for people they could talk to, people who would understand them. They reported experiencing trauma in this process, followed by feelings of stigma.</p>
<p>They also reported that they were blamed for the events. They experienced verbal abuse, were called names by parents and in some instances were ignored.</p>
<p>Coupled with the shame they already felt, some had no option but to withdraw and keep to themselves.</p>
<p>These findings agree with previous <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145213420300508">studies</a>. They also go further, to show that children are not listened to by parents and other people significant to them at the time of abuse. Even when adults hear them, the children are not understood; they are rather blamed. </p>
<h2>What we need to do</h2>
<p>While children are the primary victims, the physical and psychosocial health effects of abuse will be felt by families and the community at large. Families, communities and governments should combine their efforts to tackle this problem. </p>
<p>Governments need to enforce policies that criminalise child sexual violence. More importantly, adults who are within the primary environment of abuse (like parents, wardens, teachers and religious leaders) must learn to listen and make meaning from the voices of abused children. Families and all front line health, education and welfare professionals need to be trained to respond to violence against children, listen therapeutically and offer tailored interventions. </p>
<p>Children should be encouraged to speak up, be provided with safe spaces to do so and be assured of protection. Children can also speak out more promptly if they experience, see or hear any abuse situations.</p>
<p>Even though the patterns may be similar, every sexual abuse case is unique. It is only in listening to the individual stories that collective and meaningful progress can be made.</p>
<p>There is very little children can do. However, if they are given safe spaces, they will speak up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198602/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Adults don’t always listen to or understand children when they are abused.Steven Kator Iorfa, Doctoral Researcher, University of PortsmouthJames Edem Effiong, Senior Lecturer, University of UyoTanya Johri, PhD Research Scholar, University of DelhiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1804232022-04-21T09:50:20Z2022-04-21T09:50:20ZAfrican cities can do more to protect children from climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458817/original/file-20220420-19-tekull.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A child in the Mathare informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Alissa Everett/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Six in 10 people will be <a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3799524/files/the_worlds_cities_in_2018_data_booklet.pdf">living in cities</a> by 2030. This is concerning. Cities are responsible for <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopment/brief/climate-action-through-an-urban-lens">over 70%</a> of global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet cities can also do a lot to mitigate climate change and help people adapt to its impacts. Cities can use renewable energy sources, promote greener transport, and get industries to cut pollution and adopt cleaner production techniques. Also, they can form or use existing networks and partnerships to strengthen these efforts.</p>
<p>Almost <a href="https://data.unicef.org/resources/childrens-climate-risk-index-report/">1 billion children</a> – nearly half of the world’s children – live in countries that are at extremely high risk of climate change impacts. Climate change has direct and indirect impacts on children’s rights to health, life, dignity and education. Also, climate change increases the risk of exposure to violence against children. Climate-induced disasters displaces people, and limits access to schools, adequate water and nutrition. UNICEF has drawn attention to the fact that “<a href="https://www.unicef.org/reports/climate-crisis-child-rights-crisis">the climate crisis is a child rights crisis</a>”.</p>
<p>Recently children have taken the lead in global campaigns like School Strike for Climate and <a href="https://fridaysforfuture.org/">Fridays for Future</a> in over 7,500 cities. Children are calling on political leaders to see the crisis from their perspective and take action.</p>
<p>Central governments are often criticised as too distant and detached from everyday realities. Whereas, city governments are closer to, and in a better position to deal with local challenges, needs and priorities. Cities are empowered by national and local laws to govern on issues concerning children and in climate-related areas. Thus, they can plan and deliver what’s needed to address local climate challenges.</p>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/chil/29/4/article-p872_872.xml">study</a>, I explored how city-level climate law and policy protects children in the context of climate change. The study used Kenya and South Africa as key examples. In many countries, and in these two countries specifically, I observed that city governments have the constitutional and legislative autonomy and obligations in climate-related functional areas such as water and sanitation. These laws and policies don’t always specifically mention children, which means the concerns of children could escape attention. I argue that cities can do more to protect children from the impacts of climate change.</p>
<h2>Are children at the centre of climate action?</h2>
<p>The Climate Change <a href="http://kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Acts/ClimateChangeActNo11of2016.pdf">Act</a> (2016) of Kenya is very clear on the obligations of institutions at the city level in relation to climate governance. It empowers county governments to enact laws and policies that promote city-level climate governance and to take robust climate action. Also, it obligates cities to make climate change responses an important part of their plans. </p>
<p>The South African Climate Change <a href="https://www.parliament.gov.za/storage/app/media/Bills/2022/B9_2022_Climate_Change_Bill/B9_2022_Climate_Change_Bill.pdf">Bill</a> empowers municipalities to adopt climate change response plans at the local level. In particular, municipalities must coordinate climate action within their jurisdiction, including mainstream climate change responses in their development plans. </p>
<p>The constitutions of Kenya and South Africa have explicit provisions dedicated to children’s rights. Although these constitutional children’s rights do not speak to climate change directly, the spectrum of rights guarantees children protection from the impacts of the climate crisis. </p>
<p>Despite these obligations of city authorities over climate action on one hand, and children on the other hand, in reality the challenges of children do not always get attention in plans, budgets and interventions at the city level. This is a reality in many other cities in Africa, apart from the cities in Kenya and South Africa. </p>
<h2>The gains of child-led climate action</h2>
<p>In 2019, for the first time, children filed a <a href="http://climatecasechart.com/non-us-case/sacchi-et-al-v-argentina-et-al/">legal complaint</a> to a UN human rights treaty body – the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/crc">Committee</a> on the Rights of the Child – about the failure of their governments to take firm climate action. The children pointed out that they lived in cities such as Cape Town (South Africa), Lagos (Nigeria) and Tabarka (Tunisia) where the impacts of climate change are on the rise.</p>
<p>The communication was considered <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2021/10/un-child-rights-committee-rules-countries-bear-cross-border-responsibility">inadmissible</a>, meaning it could not be heard on the merits. Yet it was ground-breaking in making it clear that children are key actors in climate change action, deserving a seat at the table of decision-making. </p>
<p>The acceptance of children as key co-decision makers in climate governance is evident in their participation in global forums such as the 2021 climate conference – <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/11/1105042">COP26</a>. This is commendable. But, without robust action and engagement of children at the local sphere of government, the commitments become empty noise. </p>
<p>Considering the trends in urbanisation, child urban population, and the climate crisis, I would urge cities to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Expressly provide for the rights of children in climate action, particularly in law, policy and strategies. This acts as a strong legal tool to ensure the protection and participation of children in cities.</p></li>
<li><p>Open or expand institutional spaces for children to participate and contribute to climate action at the city level. This could include sporting and fun activities, forums and other opportunities for children to be engaged on the climate discourse at community level.</p></li>
<li><p>Invest technical and financial resources to ensure that children have access to updated climate change educational material in child-friendly versions, and in languages that they understand.</p></li>
<li><p>Support child-led initiatives and campaigns. This could include capacity building, resource mobilisation, and guidance for children to contribute to climate action.</p></li>
<li><p>Up-scale leadership and coordination of action and responses in a child-responsive and child-sensitive approach, including in climate-induced disasters. The best interests of children should be the guiding principle.</p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rongedzayi Fambasayi is an independent External Expert in the Working Group on Children's Rights and Climate Change of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. He is also a Canon Collins Scholar, and writes in his personal capacity.</span></em></p>Cities have the authority and duty to consider children’s rights as part of climate change responses.Rongedzayi Fambasayi, Doctoral Researcher: Faculty of Law, North-West UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1671072021-09-02T20:09:31Z2021-09-02T20:09:31ZHow the world’s biggest dark web platform spreads millions of items of child sex abuse material — and why it’s hard to stop<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419032/original/file-20210902-14-1a4z44w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=80%2C0%2C4808%2C3254&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Child sexual abuse material is rampant online, despite <a href="https://www.blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/using-ai-help-organizations-detect-and-report-child-sexual-abuse-material-online/">considerable efforts by</a> big tech companies and governments to curb it. And according to reports, it has only become <a href="https://www.weprotect.org/library/impact-of-covid-19-on-child-sexual-exploitation-online/">more prevalent</a> during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>This material is largely hosted on the anonymous part of the internet — the “darknet” - where perpetrators can share it with little fear of prosecution. There are currently a few platforms offering anonymous internet access, including <a href="https://geti2p.net/en/">i2p</a>, <a href="https://freenetproject.org/index.html">FreeNet</a> and <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>. </p>
<p>Tor is by far the largest and presents the biggest conundrum. The open-source network and browser grants users anonymity by encrypting their information and letting them escape tracking by internet service providers. </p>
<p><a href="https://theintercept.com/2015/11/12/edward-snowden-explains-how-to-reclaim-your-privacy/">Online privacy advocates</a> including Edward Snowden have championed the benefits of such platforms, claiming they protect free speech, freedom of thought and civil rights. But they have a dark side, too.</p>
<h2>Tor’s perverted underworld</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://support.torproject.org/">Tor Project</a> was initially developed by the US Navy to protect online intelligence communications, before its code was publicly released in 2002. The Tor Project’s developers have acknowledged the potential to misuse the service which, when combined with technologies such as <a href="https://www.getmonero.org/">untraceable cryptocurrency</a>, can help hide criminals. </p>
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<p>Tor is an overlay network that exists “on top” of the internet and merges two technologies. The first is the onion service software. These are the websites, or “onion services”, hosted on the Tor network. These sites require an onion address and their servers’ physical locations are hidden from users. </p>
<p>The second is Tor’s privacy-maximising browser. It enables users to browse the internet anonymously by hiding their identity and location. While the Tor browser is needed to access onion services, it can also be used to browse the “surface” internet. </p>
<p>Accessing the Tor network is simple. And while search engine options are limited (there’s no Google), discovering onion services is simple, too. The <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50150981">BBC</a>, New York Times, ProPublica, Facebook, the CIA and Pornhub all have a verified presence on Tor, to name a few.</p>
<p>Service dictionaries such as “The Hidden Wiki” list addresses on the network, allowing users to discover other (often illicit) services.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419033/original/file-20210902-13-1ws3uhq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Hidden Wiki main page screenshot." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419033/original/file-20210902-13-1ws3uhq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419033/original/file-20210902-13-1ws3uhq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419033/original/file-20210902-13-1ws3uhq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419033/original/file-20210902-13-1ws3uhq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419033/original/file-20210902-13-1ws3uhq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419033/original/file-20210902-13-1ws3uhq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419033/original/file-20210902-13-1ws3uhq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Hidden Wiki main page.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
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<h2>Child sex abuse material and abuse porn is prevalent</h2>
<p>The number of onion services active on the Tor network is unknown, although the Tor Project estimates about 170,000 active addresses. The architecture of the network allows partial monitoring of the network traffic and a summary of which services are visited. Among the visited services, child sex abuse material is common. </p>
<p>Of the <a href="https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-relay-country.html">estimated</a> 2.6 million users that use the Tor network daily, <a href="https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/iet-ifs.2015.0121">one study</a> reported only 2% (52,000) of users accessed onion services. This suggests most users access the network to <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/117/50/31716.full.pdf">retain their online privacy</a>, rather than use anonymous onion services. </p>
<p>That said, the same study found from a single data capture that about 80% of traffic to onion services was directed to services which did offer illegal porn, abuse images and/or child sex abuse material.</p>
<p>Another <a href="https://dsimg.ubm-us.net/envelope/385643/510233/The%20Truth%20About%20The%20Dark%20Web.pdf">study</a> estimated 53.4% of the 170,000 or so active onion domains contained legal content, suggesting 46.6% of services had content which was either illegal, or in a grey area. </p>
<p>Although scams make up a significant proportion of these services, cryptocurrency services, drug deals, malware, weapons, stolen credentials, counterfeit products and child sex abuse material also feature in this dark part of the internet.</p>
<p>Only about 7.5% of the child sex abuse material on the Tor network is <a href="https://cj.msu.edu/_assets/pdfs/cina/CINA-White_Papers-Liggett_Commercial_Child_Sexual_Abuse_Markets_Dark_Web.pdf">estimated to be</a> sold for a profit. The majority of those involved aren’t in it for money, so most of this material is simply swapped. That said, <a href="https://www.europol.europa.eu/activities-services/main-reports/internet-organised-crime-threat-assessment-iocta-2020">some services have started</a> charging fees for content. </p>
<p>Several high-profile onion services hosting child sex abuse material have been <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/4xezgg/australian-dark-web-hacking-campaign-unmasked-hundreds-globally">shut down</a> following extensive cross-jurisdictional law enforcement operations, including The Love Zone website in 2014, PlaypEn in 2015 and Child’s Play in 2017.</p>
<p>A recent effort led by German police, and involving others including Australian Federal Police, Europol and the FBI, resulted in the shutdown of the illegal website <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boystown_(website)">Boystown</a> in May. </p>
<p>But one of the largest child sex abuse material forums on the internet (not just Tor) has evaded law enforcement (and activist) takedown attempts for a decade. As of last month it had 508,721 registered users. And since 2013 it has hosted over a million pictures and videos of child sex abuse material and abuse porn.</p>
<p>The paedophile (eroticisation of pre-pubescent children), haebephile (pubescent children) and ephebophile (adolescents) communities are among the early adopters of anonymous discussion forums on Tor. Forum members distribute media, support each other and exchange tips to avoid police detection and scams targeting them.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.weprotect.org/">WeProtect Alliance</a>’s 2019 <a href="https://www.end-violence.org/sites/default/files/paragraphs/download/Global%20Threat%20Assessment%202019.pdf">Global Threat Assessment report</a> estimated there were more than 2.88 million users on ten forums dedicated to paedophilia and paraphilia interests operating via onion services. </p>
<h2>Countermeasures</h2>
<p>There are huge challenges for law enforcement trying to prosecute those who produce and/or distribute child sex abuse material online. Such criminal activity typically falls across multiple jurisdictions, making detection and prosecution difficult.</p>
<p>Undercover operations and novel online investigative techniques are essential. One example is targeted “hacks” which offer law enforcement back-door access to sites or forums hosting child sex abuse material.</p>
<p>Such operations are facilitated by <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/cybercrime/the-budapest-convention">cybercrime</a> and <a href="https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/organized-crime/intro/UNTOC.htmll">transnational organised crime</a> treaties which address child sex abuse material and the trafficking of women and children.</p>
<p>Given the volatile nature of many onion services, a focus on onion directories and forums may help with harm reduction. Little is known about child sex abuse material forums on Tor, or the extent to which they influence onion services hosting this material.</p>
<p>Apart from coordinating to avoid detection, forum users can also share information about police activity, rate onion service vendors, share sites and expose scams targeting them.</p>
<p>The monitoring of forums by outsiders can lead to actionable interventions, such as the successful profiling of active offenders. Some agencies have explored using undercover law enforcement officers, civil society, or NGO experts (such as from the <a href="https://www.weprotect.org">WeProtect Global Alliance</a> or <a href="https://www.ecpat.org">ECPAT International</a>) to promote self-regulation within these groups.</p>
<p>While there is a lack of research on this, reformed or recovering offenders can also provide counsel to others. Some sub-forums seek to offer education, encourage treatment and reduce harm — usually by focusing on the legal and health issues associated with consuming child sex abuse material, and ways to control urges and avoid stimuli. </p>
<p>Other contraband services also play a role. For instance, onion services dedicated to drug, malware or other illicit trading usually ban child sex abuse material that creeps in. </p>
<p>Why does the Tor network allow such abhorrent material to remain, despite extensive opposition — sometimes even from those within these groups? Surely those representing Tor have read complaints in the media, if not <a href="https://www.protectchildren.ca/pdfs/C3P_SurvivorsSurveyFullReport2017.pdf">survivor</a> reports about child sex abuse material.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-darknet-a-wild-west-for-fake-coronavirus-cures-the-reality-is-more-complicated-and-regulated-137608">The darknet – a wild west for fake coronavirus 'cures'? The reality is more complicated (and regulated)</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167107/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roderic Broadhurst has received funding for a variety of research projects on cybercrime and darknet markets from the Australian Research Council, Australian Institute of Criminology, Korean institute of Criminology and, the Australian Criminology Research Council. Since April 2019 he has served on the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation Research Working Group. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Ball does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One study found 80% of darknet traffic on Tor went to sites hosting unmoderated porn and child sex abuse material.Roderic Broadhurst, Emeritus Professor, Australian National UniversityMatthew Ball, Laboratory Coordinator at the Australian National University's Cybercrime Observatory, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1340522020-03-23T17:55:35Z2020-03-23T17:55:35ZWhy we need responsible data for children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321273/original/file-20200318-37392-h30e4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C395%2C5223%2C3081&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/fr/image-photo/group-young-girls-boy-playing-phone-578419900">StaceStock/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around the world, humanitarian and development organizations working with children are increasingly reliant on a wide range of technologies used to improve the efficacy of service delivery and how to respond to, for instance, pandemics and other dynamic threats. </p>
<p>Child rights organizations are using or exploring the use of a variety of <a href="https://data.unicef.org/resources/data-children-strategic-framework/">data-driven technologies</a> to bolster services provided to children, including <a href="https://data.unicef.org/resources/biometrics/">biometrics</a>, <a href="https://www.gavi.org/call-for-new-id-technology-to-help-immunise-every-child">digital identity systems</a>, <a href="https://www.unicef.org/innovation/school-mapping">remote-sensing technologies</a>, <a href="https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/can-ai-help-save-our-children-from-online-sexual-abuse/">mobile and social media messaging apps</a>, and administrative data systems. The data generated by these tools and systems includes potentially sensitive data, such as personally identifiable information (PII) and demographically identifiable information (DII) – data points that enable the identification, classification, and tracking of individuals, groups, or multiple groups of individuals by demographically defining factors.</p>
<p>Given this increasingly datafied environment, and the emerging challenges involved in upholding the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> in our data age, there is a clear need to develop and disseminate responsible approaches for handling data for and about children. Last year, The GovLab and UNICEF initiated the <a href="http://rd4c.org/">Responsible Data for Children initiative</a> (RD4C) to support actors around the world in avoiding unintended negative consequences on data subjects and beneficiaries and, in turn, ensuring the effective use and positive impact of data.</p>
<h2>Growing opportunities, and risks</h2>
<p>Collecting, storing, preparing, sharing, analyzing, and using data about children create unique opportunities and risks. These opportunities and risks are distinct from those involved in the datafication of the general public or other vulnerable groups. To achieve responsible data for children, the public sector, data-holding businesses, and civil society organizations delivering services for children need to better understand the distinct risks and opportunities of an increasingly connected and quantified environment for children.</p>
<p>Without question, the increased use of data poses unique risks for and responsibilities to children. While practitioners may have well-intended purposes to leverage data for and about children, the data systems used are often designed with (consenting) adults in mind without a focus on the unique needs and vulnerabilities of children. This can lead to the collection of inaccurate and unreliable data as well as the inappropriate and potentially harmful use of data for and about children. </p>
<h2>Trends and realities</h2>
<p><a href="http://rd4c.org/readings.html">Research undertaken</a> in the context of the RD4C initiative uncovered the following trends and realities. These issues make clear why we need a dedicated data responsibility approach for children.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Today’s children are the first generation growing up at a time of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444816686328">rapid datafication</a> where almost all aspects of their lives, both on and off-line, are turned into data points. An entire generation of young people is being datafied – often starting <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6954971e-5d3a-11e9-939a-341f5ada9d40">even before birth</a>. Every year the average child will have <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/05/21/how-much-data-do-we-create-every-day-the-mind-blowing-stats-everyone-should-read/">more data collected</a> about them in their lifetime than would a similar child born any year prior. The potential uses of such large volumes of data and the impact on children’s lives are unpredictable, and could potentially be used against them.</p></li>
<li><p>Children typically <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2736277.2741124">do not have full agency</a> to make decisions about their participation in programs or services which may generate and record personal data. Children may also lack the understanding to assess a decision’s purported risks and benefits. Privacy terms and conditions are often <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/03/terms-of-service-online-contracts-fine-print">barely understood</a> by educated adults, let alone children. As a result, there is a higher duty of care for children’s data.</p></li>
<li><p>Disaggregating data according to <a href="https://data2x.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/MeasuringWomensFinInclusion-ValueofSexDisaggData.pdf">socio-demographic characteristics</a> can <a href="https://www.unicef.org/media/64181/file/HLPF_2020_2PAGER_FINAL_data_monitoring.pdf">improve service delivery</a> and assist with policy development. However, it also creates risks for <a href="https://www.stiftung-nv.de/sites/default/files/group-privacy-2017-authors-draft-manuscript.pdf">group privacy</a>. Children can be identified, exposing them to possible harms. Disaggregated data for groups such as child-headed households and children experiencing gender-based violence can put vulnerable communities and children at risk. Data about children’s location itself <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/21/opinion/pasadena-smartphone-spying.html">can be risky</a>, especially if they have some additional vulnerability that could expose them to harm.</p></li>
<li><p>Mishandling data can cause children to lose <a href="https://www.unocha.org/story/data-responsibility-humanitarian-action-building-trust-through-dialogue">trust in institutions</a> that deliver essential services including vaccines, medicine, and nutrition supplies. For organizations dealing with child well-being, these retreats can have severe consequences. <a href="https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2019/10/24/trust-humanitarian/">Distrust</a> can cause families and children to refuse health, education, child protection and other public services. Such privacy protective behavior can impact children throughout the course of their lifetime, and potentially exacerbate existing inequities and vulnerabilities.</p></li>
<li><p>As volumes of collected and stored data increase, <a href="https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/key-data-protection-themes/children/">obligations</a> and protections traditionally put in place for children may be difficult or impossible to uphold. The <a href="https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/IWP_2017_05.pdf">interests of children</a> are not always prioritized when organizations define their legitimate interest to access or share personal information of children. The immediate benefit of a service provided does not always justify the risk or harm that might be caused by it in the future. Data analysis may be undertaken by people who do not have expertise in the area of child rights, as opposed to traditional research where practitioners are specifically educated in <a href="https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/IWP_2016_18.pdf">child subject research</a>. Similarly, service providers collecting children’s data are not always specially trained to handle it, as international standards recommend.</p></li>
<li><p>Recent events around the world reveal the promise and pitfalls of algorithmic decision-making. While it can expedite certain processes, algorithms and their inferences can possess biases that can have adverse effects on people, <a href="https://www.isi.it/wp_blobs/publication/document/">for example</a> those seeking medical care and attempting to secure jobs. The danger posed by algorithmic bias is especially pronounced for children and other vulnerable populations. These groups <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614306/kids-are-surrounded-by-ai-they-should-know-how-it-works/">often lack the awareness or resources</a> necessary to respond to instances of bias or to rectify any misconceptions or inaccuracies in their data.</p></li>
<li><p>Many of the children served by child welfare organizations have suffered trauma. Whether physical, social, emotional in nature, repeatedly making children register for services or <a href="https://www.integration.samhsa.gov/about-us/Trauma-InformedInterviewingManual-508.pdf">provide confidential personal information</a> can amount to revictimization – re-exposing them to traumas or instigating unwarranted feelings of shame and guilt.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These trends and realities make clear the need for new approaches for maximizing the value of data to improve children’s lives, while mitigating the risks posed by our increasingly datafied society.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The full-length Responsible Data for Children Synthesis Report and other resources are available on Responsible Data for Children website, <a href="http://rd4c.org/">RD4C.org</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>The authors would like to thank Stuart Campo, Senior Fellow at The GovLab, for his important contributions to the RD4C initiative.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134052/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Young's work on responsible data receives funding from the MacArthur Foundation, Luminate, Hewlett Foundation, and UNICEF.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefaan G. Verhulst's work on responsible data receives funding from the MacArthur Foundation, Luminate, Hewlett Foundation, and UNICEF.</span></em></p>In our increasingly datafied world, there is a clear need to develop and disseminate responsible approaches for handling data for and about children.Andrew Young, Knowledge director, the Governance Lab, New York UniversityStefaan G. Verhulst, Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of the Governance Laboratory, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1286342019-12-11T12:57:51Z2019-12-11T12:57:51ZHow South Africa can build a child-centred health care system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306094/original/file-20191210-95130-812jgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Child health care remains uneven in South Africa and varies between provinces and districts.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is more than 20 years since the South African constitution first guaranteed children’s “right to basic health care services”. This is part of a broader commitment to ensure children’s rights to optimal survival, health and development. The question is how close South Africa is to realising these rights in practice. </p>
<p>We address this issue in a <a href="http://www.ci.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/367/Child_Gauge/South_African_Child_Gauge_2019/CG2019%20-%20%281%29%20Prioritising%20child%20and%20adolescent%20health.pdf">chapter</a> of the <a href="http://www.ci.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/367/Child_Gauge/South_African_Child_Gauge_2019/ChildGauge_2019_final_print%20%28sm%29.pdf">South African Child Gauge 2019</a> report. </p>
<p>Unlike adults’ right to health, children’s right to basic health care services is not subject to progressive realisation. Children should therefore be prioritised within the health care system. Yet the state has still not defined an essential package of health care services for children. This makes it difficult to determine what they are entitled to and what the state should be held accountable for. </p>
<p>Without a defined package, there’s a danger that the drive for efficiencies and cost saving may result in a limited basket of care that doesn’t address the complex needs of children. This is particularly true for those with chronic (long term) health conditions. </p>
<p>This essential package of care needs to be supported by a set of norms and standards. These need to specify the infrastructure, equipment, medicines and staff needed to meet the unique needs of children and adolescents. A clear package will also make explicit how health care establishments need to be equipped. These would include neonatal and paediatric wards as well as emergency medical services and primary health care services, where children currently have to compete for attention with sick and injured adults. </p>
<p>In other facets of the health system, too, budgets, building of infrastructure and medicine supplies need to consider children’s unique needs. </p>
<p>A child rights approach to health requires health professionals to treat children and their caregivers with respect and communicate effectively. Health care providers also need to build children’s and adolescents’ capacity to take responsibility for their own health and include them in decision making. </p>
<p>These fundamental shifts in the balance of power between adult and child, doctor and patient have been found to relieve pain and suffering. They also improve diagnosis, compliance with treatment, patient satisfaction and health outcomes. </p>
<h2>Training health workers</h2>
<p>The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Child has called for children’s rights to be integrated in the curriculum and performance criteria of all professionals working with children. These include health and allied professionals, teachers and social workers. The aim is to ensure that they are better attuned to children’s needs and rights. </p>
<p>For example, the <a href="http://www.lincare.co.za/?m=2019">LinCARE</a> programme, where a team of health workers provides mother and child health care in Limpopo province, aims to reduce neonatal mortality. It does this by improving the quality of care during pregnancy and labour. The programme is aimed at ensuring that all women have a positive pregnancy and birth experience. It includes antenatal classes and ensures that women have practical and emotional support from a birth companion and kind, respectful and technically competent clinical staff.</p>
<p>As part of current preparation for a <a href="http://www.health.gov.za/index.php/nhi">national health insurance</a> system, which is aimed at extending universal health care to all South Africans, bolstering the primary health care system offers three opportunities to strengthen the child health workforce and improve the quality of care: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Community health workers play a central role in bringing health care services close to home, particularly for children living in poor or remote households. It’s therefore encouraging to see the national department of health’s commitment to employing them and paying them the minimum wage. This should improve supervision and support and ensure greater continuity of care between community-based services and health care facilities. </p></li>
<li><p>School health teams are another essential ingredient of the child system, helping to screen older children and address barriers to learning. Yet coverage reaches only one third of pupils in their first year of schooling and 20% of grade 8 learners. Its effectiveness is compromised by the shortage of health and other social service professionals, such as social workers, oral hygienists and dentists, psychologists, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists.</p></li>
<li><p>Finally, district clinical specialist teams provide essential leadership for child and adolescent health at district level. For example, neonatal mortality has dropped by 30% in districts where there are paediatricians and paediatric nurses, yet less than half of specialist teams have a full paediatric team.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>What needs to be done</h2>
<p>The progress for child health has been uneven in South Africa with significant variation between provinces and districts. For example, immunisation varied from 90% in Mpumalanga to 69% in the Eastern Cape – signalling persistent inequities in access and coverage of care.</p>
<p>Given these challenges, greater investment is needed to strengthen systems and build a workforce for child and adolescent health. National health insurance provides an important opportunity to ensure universal health coverage and financial risk protection for the poor, as well as to improve the quality of care. </p>
<p>This requires leadership for child health at every level of the health care system – from individual encounters with children and their families, to ensuring that child health is adequately represented on key decision-making structures that will decide how resources are allocated.</p>
<p>Very importantly, it requires that the health sector works with and alongside other sectors. Interventions such as sufficient good quality food, good quality education, safe water and sanitation, good housing, safe roads and safe communities can significantly promote the health and well-being of children.</p>
<p><em>The South African Child Gauge 2019 report is published by the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town. The theme of the 2019 issue – “Child and adolescent health: leave no one behind” – is a call to prioritise child and adolescent health and put children at the heart of the health care system.</em> </p>
<p><em>Lori Lake, a co-editor of the Child Gauge report, also contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128634/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maylene Shung-King does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Children’s right to health is paramount: here’s what needs to be done to build a child-centred health care system.Maylene Shung-King, Professor, Health Policy, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/875062017-11-20T03:15:59Z2017-11-20T03:15:59ZJelena Dokic’s story of abuse shows links between elite sport and child labour<p>It’s impossible to read <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/tennis/unbreakable-tennis-superstar-jelena-dokics-inspiring-story-of-surviving-the-relentless-violence-of-her-father-damir/news-story/32d1d00f64ca7fd32705eb6473eecb8a">Jelena Dokic’s</a> and <a href="https://www.indystar.com/story/news/investigations/2017/02/26/dominique-moceanu-says-usa-gymnastics-ceo-forefront-ignoring-abuse/98258474/">other sport stars’</a> stories of physical, emotional and verbal abuse suffered at the hands of their parents or coaches without being horrified.</p>
<p>It’s also easy to blame controlling sport parents like Dokic’s father, but by doing this we’re ignoring a much larger problem. Child and adolescent sport at an elite level can mirror child labour, so the sport itself should be treated with same degree of scrutiny. </p>
<h2>Why some elite sport at a young age is like child labour</h2>
<p>Canadian sport sociologist Peter Donnelly noticed a trend in sports 20 years ago: children were encouraged to <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/101269097032004004">participate heavily at a younger and younger age</a>. This was spurred on by parents and the sport talent identification system. </p>
<p>Children dedicated greater time and commitment to training and competition under stress from poor behaviour by parents, coaches and administrators. At the time, Donnelly argued that the conditions of some elite child athlete programs bore a striking similarity to child labour conditions.</p>
<p>He argued national laws against child labour should be applied in the elite sport context. In the same way that child labour laws do not prevent weekend and casual work, like paperrounds or shop sales, most child and adolescent sport is not labour-like. </p>
<p>But some is.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195089/original/file-20171116-18368-1w7q93x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195089/original/file-20171116-18368-1w7q93x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195089/original/file-20171116-18368-1w7q93x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195089/original/file-20171116-18368-1w7q93x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195089/original/file-20171116-18368-1w7q93x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195089/original/file-20171116-18368-1w7q93x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195089/original/file-20171116-18368-1w7q93x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195089/original/file-20171116-18368-1w7q93x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There is a trend in sports for more intense involvement at a younger and younger age.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gianni Caito/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of the similarities in child labour and elite children’s sport, as suggested by Donnelly, include:</p>
<p>1) Working long hours – child athletes may start intensive training at a very young age. In a <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/tennis/unbreakable-tennis-superstar-jelena-dokics-inspiring-story-of-surviving-the-relentless-violence-of-her-father-damir/news-story/32d1d00f64ca7fd32705eb6473eecb8a">published excerpt</a> from her book, Dokic reveals that her tennis became 24/7 during her adolescence, which meant sacrificing time with her mother and brother.</p>
<p>2) Working under excessive physical, psychological or social stress – there is <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/119/6/1242.short">evidence</a> of this in rates of <a href="http://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/10.1123/ssj.9.3.271">burnout</a>, overuse injuries, and withdrawal from sport. Some children have excessively stressful experiences, turning sports loving children into drop-out adolescents and young adults. <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/tennis/unbreakable-tennis-superstar-jelena-dokics-inspiring-story-of-surviving-the-relentless-violence-of-her-father-damir/news-story/32d1d00f64ca7fd32705eb6473eecb8a">Dokic claimed</a> that she considered suicide as an option of escape. </p>
<p>3) Working for little pay – very few child athletes are paid or subsidised and those that are may not be protected from unscrupulous parents or agents. Dokic’s father referred to the youngster as the family’s <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/tennis/unbreakable-tennis-superstar-jelena-dokics-inspiring-story-of-surviving-the-relentless-violence-of-her-father-damir/news-story/32d1d00f64ca7fd32705eb6473eecb8a">“way out”</a> from a life of poverty and welfare in Australia. Dokic subsequently <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/tennis/jelena-dokic-has-detailed-the-harrowing-abuse-she-suffered-at-the-hands-of-father-damir/news-story/53e60587c791ec84b31f517aff116130">signed all of her earnings over to him</a>. </p>
<p>4) Being subject to intimidation – there are <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/worst-of-the-worst-fathers-years-of-abuse-against-athlete-daughter-revealed-20160729-gqh28x.html">multiple cases</a> of young athletes reporting physical, mental and sexual abuse in elite and sub-elite programs. Dokic has <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/tennis/unbreakable-tennis-superstar-jelena-dokics-inspiring-story-of-surviving-the-relentless-violence-of-her-father-damir/news-story/32d1d00f64ca7fd32705eb6473eecb8a">revealed</a> that she suffered belt-whippings, beatings, verbal abuse, kicking and spitting.</p>
<h2>How to protect children playing sport at an elite level</h2>
<p>The preamble to the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx">International Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> states that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Children, because of their vulnerability, need special care and protection. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Abuse and exploitation in elite child and adolescent sport is far more widespread <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Human_Rights_in_Youth_Sport.html?id=sUaBAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">than it should be</a>. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/car.843/pdf">Research</a> has found emotional abuse of child athletes by their coaches became worse after the child was identified as an elite performer. </p>
<p>The government might be motivated to apply child labour laws to limit child sport programs, based on compelling evidence of the harm that can be caused. That is that child athletes, like Dokic, suffer humiliation, abuse, injury, stress and burnout. </p>
<p>The conditions of elite sport for children, even when in non-abusive situations, may remain work-like in some aspects. </p>
<p>Another of Donnelly’s arguments is that sport has avoided scrutiny as a workplace for child labour because sport is considered play-like, noble, health-enhancing and character-building, in ways that sweatshops are not.</p>
<p>One trend against the use of child labour laws in sporting contexts is the increasing assertion of the rights of parents to make choices on behalf of their children, and the resistance to some notion of the “<a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=hbipDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA275&lpg=PA275&dq=Critique+of+nanny+state+and+control+of+children&source=bl&ots=Wz987M-c_e&sig=uLmASGrsjNsaly2OnPKAGr_FLQ8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQtJHCsMLXAhWBe7wKHeaJAL0Q6AEIajAJ#v=onepage&q=Critique%20of%20nanny%20state%20and%20control%20of%20children&f=false">nanny state</a>” that regulates these choices from above. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195091/original/file-20171116-15454-16a8gwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195091/original/file-20171116-15454-16a8gwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195091/original/file-20171116-15454-16a8gwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195091/original/file-20171116-15454-16a8gwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195091/original/file-20171116-15454-16a8gwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195091/original/file-20171116-15454-16a8gwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195091/original/file-20171116-15454-16a8gwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195091/original/file-20171116-15454-16a8gwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There is compelling evidence of harm to young elite athletes caused by intense involvement in sport.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prakarn Eammart/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet we would not support a parent’s right to choose to allow their child to work long hours in stressful employment.</p>
<p>The decision cannot solely be left in the hands of parents who may benefit, either economically or socially, from their child’s participation in the sport. The decision also cannot be left to the sports coaches and administrators, as they are caught up in the system goal of high performance.</p>
<p>Will this mean the abolition of all elite sport development for children and adolescents? Of course not. </p>
<p>But there could be <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Human_Rights_in_Youth_Sport.html?id=sUaBAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">more done to assist</a> the future Jelena Dokics of the sporting world. Sports organisations could enforce limits on the starting age, have independent and more regular monitoring of elite programs and keep the child’s earnings in a trust to protect children playing at a high level.</p>
<p>An independent child athlete advocate that sits outside of the sport organisation should complement the protection measures put in place by the organisation.</p>
<p>At the very least, society should be concerned when children who commence a sporting career with anticipation and excitement, finish it with disenchantment, hatred or, even worse, physical and emotional scars.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87506/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Burke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Former tennis star Jelena Dokic’s story of disturbing abuse suffered at the hands of her father raises alarm bells about children in elite sports.Michael Burke, Researcher, Institute for Sport, Exercise and Active Living and Senior Lecturer, College of Sport and Exercise Science, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/828902017-09-07T23:29:52Z2017-09-07T23:29:52ZA new way to reduce playground bullying<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185004/original/file-20170906-9862-il178m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As kids head back to school this week across Canada, many will be victims or perpetrators of bullying. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For some teachers, back-to-school excitement comes with jitters over how best to address new curriculum mandates. And for many parents, there are other worries, including concerns about their children’s social interactions and fears of playground bullying. </p>
<p>As a researcher in children’s literature, I have developed a literary mentorship program that tackles both of these challenges. <em>Read for Your Rights!</em> uses children’s fiction to engage young children on the concepts of rights and responsibility, and with the content of the <a href="https://www.unicef.org/crc/">United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> (UNCRC). </p>
<p>The program also aims to reduce bullying at school. And preliminary data from a pilot at a Chilliwack elementary school in British Columbia during 2017 shows success. </p>
<p>Participating teachers observed fewer instances of negative social behaviour after their students participated in <em>Read for Your Rights!</em> They also observed scenarios in which an altercation broke out and children made specific references to the program in attempts to elicit better treatment of one another. </p>
<p>Can you imagine hearing the words: “Remember to ‘Choose Kind’!” or “We’re like the Bully Blockers!” ring out over the playground? That’s what happened in Chilliwack after the children participated in the program. </p>
<h2>Teaching rights and responsibilities</h2>
<p>In B.C., teachers are wondering how to meet <a href="http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/curriculum">new requirements</a> to cover human rights within social studies lessons. Teachers are now expected to teach treaties such as the UNCRC beginning in Kindergarten. But how can such a complex legal document be made accessible for the youngest learners when even adults find it nebulous?</p>
<p>The key to making human rights real for children is making them concrete. Connecting some of the UNCRC’s abstract principles with familiar, everyday situations allows even kindergarteners to begin to grapple with concepts of rights and responsibilities. Using children’s books is an effective way to make it work.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185123/original/file-20170907-9573-mw2uau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185123/original/file-20170907-9573-mw2uau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185123/original/file-20170907-9573-mw2uau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185123/original/file-20170907-9573-mw2uau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185123/original/file-20170907-9573-mw2uau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185123/original/file-20170907-9573-mw2uau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185123/original/file-20170907-9573-mw2uau.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Grade 5 kids working with undergraduate mentors on the Read for Your Rights! pilot in a Chilliwack elementary school.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That’s exactly what we did in <em>Read for Your Rights!</em> We piloted the program at a Chilliwack elementary school in February 2017. Students from my <a href="http://www.ufv.ca/english/">University of the Fraser Valley English</a> course <em>Children’s Literature and Children’s Rights</em> were involved in mentoring students in Grade 5 and then helping those children mentor kindergarteners.</p>
<p>First of all, the students read the <a href="https://www.unicef.org/rightsite/files/uncrcchilldfriendlylanguage.pdf">UNCRC in child-friendly language</a>. The UNCRC alone is too abstract, so we made it more tangibly real by bringing in a work of children’s literature and drawing connections between the story and the document. </p>
<p>The Grade 5s then read <a href="http://rjpalacio.com/book.html"><em>Wonder</em></a> by R. J. Palacio, while the kindergarteners read <a href="https://www.albertwhitman.com/book/the-bully-blockers-club/"><em>The Bully Blockers Club</em></a> by Teresa Bateman. My students, who read both stories, identified the most relevant UNCRC articles relating to each book and used them to create program activities. When that was done it was finally time to bring everybody — and everything — together. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185002/original/file-20170906-9202-kdgqcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185002/original/file-20170906-9202-kdgqcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185002/original/file-20170906-9202-kdgqcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185002/original/file-20170906-9202-kdgqcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185002/original/file-20170906-9202-kdgqcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185002/original/file-20170906-9202-kdgqcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185002/original/file-20170906-9202-kdgqcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Wonder’ by R. J. Palacio.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Handout</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To deliver the program, my students supported the Grade 5 children in various activities ranging from group discussions, to literature circles, to skits, to making a (paper) friendship quilt. During four of these hour-long sessions, the children worked to connect <em>Wonder</em> and <a href="https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwj4y_eHrJPWAhUM3GMKHUvjCYoQFggmMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.unicef.org%2Fcrc%2Ffiles%2FRights_overview.pdf&usg=AFQjCNFqFlwsmxaTAjRz3TWm34ednn-CRw">Articles 2, 12 and 29 of the UNCRC</a>. These relate to non-discrimination, respect for children’s views and the right to an education that helps them develop their talents and live peacefully.</p>
<p>Using a similar approach, my students and the Grade 5 children spent two sessions working with kindergarteners to find common ground between Articles 15 and 19 — which include the right to protection from all forms of violence — and <em>The Bully Blockers Club</em>. During this portion of the program, activities included small and large group discussions, skits and friendship bracelets.</p>
<h2>‘We’re like the Bully-Blockers!’</h2>
<p>The program also aimed to reduce bullying at school. There are plenty of studies suggesting that children’s literature can <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ664307">help children understand bullying</a> behaviour and that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15388220.2015.1095100">school-based programs might be effective</a> in reducing it. However, none bring in the UNCRC. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185001/original/file-20170906-9823-1oc2rx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185001/original/file-20170906-9823-1oc2rx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185001/original/file-20170906-9823-1oc2rx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185001/original/file-20170906-9823-1oc2rx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185001/original/file-20170906-9823-1oc2rx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185001/original/file-20170906-9823-1oc2rx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185001/original/file-20170906-9823-1oc2rx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Bully Blockers Club’ by Teresa Bateman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Handout</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since I have argued that the <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/628009">UNCRC is the foundation to developing a more child-centred approach to children’s literature</a>, I brought together various well-established practices — mentoring, literature circles, artistic activities and rights education — into a brand new program. My theory was that by linking rights and responsibilities, and at the same time inviting children to observe the emotional consequences of bullying through the “neutral” medium of story, they would begin to take responsibility for treating one another more kindly at school. </p>
<p>But does it work? Can reading for their rights really help children to better understand both the UNCRC <em>and</em> a work of literature — all leading to reduced bullying?</p>
<p>While the pilot was admittedly small, preliminary data collected through questionnaires and field observations does clearly indicate children’s increased understanding and application of their rights and responsibilities. </p>
<p>For example, before participating in <em>Read for Your Rights!</em> only eight per cent of the Grade 5 children who responded to the questionnaires reported knowing about the UNCRC or children’s rights. After the program, 96 per cent said they knew about these things. </p>
<p>Before the program, only 46 per cent of Grade 5 children believed that bullying relates to children’s rights; after the program, 64 per cent believed this. Before the program, 92 per cent of children didn’t know how to stop bullying. Afterwards, only 72 per cent reported not knowing. kindergarten results were similar (although less pronounced). </p>
<h2>In the classroom</h2>
<p>Any teacher can use elements of <em>Read for Your Rights!</em> You don’t need two dozen eager university students to begin enjoying some of the program’s benefits. Teachers can tick off a tricky item on the new curriculum To Do list anytime by:</p>
<ol>
<li>Identifying an area of human rights that relates to a behaviour observed in your classroom. </li>
<li>Finding a children’s book that focuses on that behaviour (a work of literature rather than a didactic tale or non-fiction). </li>
<li>Reviewing the UNCRC to select relevant articles. </li>
<li>Designing activities and projects that bring together the book and the articles. </li>
<li>Following up with discussion questions to ensure that children are taking away points of key importance.</li>
</ol><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82890/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Superle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new mentorship program uses fiction to teach children’s rights, and to help kids understand and prevent bullying.Michelle Superle, Assistant Professor, University of The Fraser ValleyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/680512016-11-08T19:05:47Z2016-11-08T19:05:47ZAustralia failing to safeguard cultural connections for Aboriginal children in out-of-home care<p>Child protection and out-of-home care have been the subject of multiple inquiries and reviews, and 2016 has been no exception. This year there have been <a href="http://childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/">four</a> <a href="http://www.agd.sa.gov.au/child-protection-systems-royal-commission">separate</a> <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/About/RoyalCommissions/Pages/Royal-Commission-into-the-Detention-of-Children-in-the-Northern-Territory.aspx">royal</a> <a href="http://www.rcfv.com.au/">commissions</a> into child protection and the related factors of family violence, child sexual abuse, juvenile detention and the systemic failures in these areas.</p>
<p>The Victorian Commission for Children and Young People recently released <a href="http://www.ccyp.vic.gov.au/downloads/in-the-childs-best-interests-inquiry-report.pdf">two</a> <a href="http://www.ccyp.vic.gov.au/downloads/always-was-always-will-be-koori-children-inquiry-report-oct16.pdf">reports</a> examining the failure of both government and non-government organisations to implement policies and services for Aboriginal children that will safeguard their cultural connections. </p>
<p>The inter-generational issues that have stemmed from the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families and communities - and the resultant trauma experienced by so many - have been the focus of concerted action and advocacy by Aboriginal leaders, peak bodies, organisations and community groups since the 1970s.</p>
<p>But in these most recent reports, we see familiar concerns. These include the widespread lack of implementation of the <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/enhancing-implementation-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-child/aboriginal-and">Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle</a> and the lack of cultural care planning for Aboriginal children in out-of-home care.</p>
<p>The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle (the principle) is often described and legislated as a “placement hierarchy”.</p>
<p>Under the principle, placement choices for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who can’t remain with their parents start with family and kin networks. That is followed by non-related carers in the child’s community, and then other Aboriginal caregivers and non-relative foster carers.</p>
<p>The principle emphasises five aspects:</p>
<ul>
<li>prevention</li>
<li>partnership</li>
<li>placement</li>
<li>participation, and</li>
<li>connection. </li>
</ul>
<p>These aspects of the principle are often overlooked, or not implemented, because they are not included in legislation.</p>
<p>Nationally, the impact of the principle has crudely been measured through <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60129554973">figures</a> from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare which assess the Aboriginality of caregivers and their relationship to a child.</p>
<p>However, the reports from the Victorian Commission, together with <a href="http://apo.org.au/files/Resource/icpp-complete-report.pdf">similar audits</a> <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/enhancing-implementation-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-child">in Queensland</a>, have highlighted the reality behind the numbers. These reports show minimal practice compliance with the principle, and high levels of variability within and across jurisdictions. </p>
<p>For example, a number of children are not correctly identified as Aboriginal, which means there cannot be adherence to the principle for these children. Similarly, despite policy intent and available programs, there is minimal compliance with several practice aspects including the use of family decision making meetings and strategies to maintain cultural identity.</p>
<p>We’ve <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/enhancing-implementation-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-child">examined why</a> this policy and practice disconnect exists when it comes to the safety and well being of Aboriginal children. There are several factors that act as barriers to implementation of the principle, not least of which is the increasing over-representation of Aboriginal children in child protection systems across Australia.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144976/original/image-20161107-4698-1a37391.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144976/original/image-20161107-4698-1a37391.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144976/original/image-20161107-4698-1a37391.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144976/original/image-20161107-4698-1a37391.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144976/original/image-20161107-4698-1a37391.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144976/original/image-20161107-4698-1a37391.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144976/original/image-20161107-4698-1a37391.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Adapted by Alwin Chong and Fiona Arney from the publication: ‘Enhancing the implementation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle: Policy and practice considerations.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>If we’re going to improve conditions for Aboriginal children in child protection and out-of-home care, we must focus on breaking inter-generational cycles of trauma. We also need to make sure children feel “culturally safe”. That means they don’t face challenges to or denials of their cultural identity; of who they are and what they need.</p>
<p>We must recognise the protective properties of cultural connection, rather than viewing culture as a risk factor, and <a href="http://www.lowitja.org.au/cultural-determinants-roundtable">engage communities</a> in determining the solutions most appropriate for them.</p>
<p>In addition to the work being undertaken as part of the <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/our-responsibilities/families-and-children/publications-articles/protecting-children-is-everyones-business">National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children</a>, major national grass roots initiatives are driving this change. </p>
<p>National Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal organisations - for example, <a href="http://www.snaicc.org.au/">SNAICC</a>, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander <a href="http://healingfoundation.org.au/">Healing Foundation</a>, <a href="http://winangay.com/resources/">Winangay Resources</a>, and the <a href="http://www.unisa.edu.au/research/australian-centre-for-child-protection/">Australian Centre for Child Protection</a> - are leading the <a href="http://www.familymatters.org.au/">Family Matters</a> and <a href="http://monash.edu/research/explore/en/publications/positive-futures-indigenous-cultural-sustainability-consultation-with-the-aboriginal-community-of-the-albury-region(d97bac65-720c-4bbe-b928-14b48c04a450).html">Positive Futures</a> initiatives to find alternative approaches to support Aboriginal children, their families and communities.</p>
<p>As we come to recognise the devastating mental, physical and social impacts of trauma, grief and abuse across generations, and understand just how widespread this problem is for all children, the need to treat child abuse and neglect as a public health issue is clear.</p>
<p>This approach means better understanding the problem, its causes and impacts, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/empowering-indigenous-communities-to-prevent-child-abuse-and-neglect-32875">strategies</a> to best <a href="http://ccde.menzies.edu.au/sites/default/files/resources/Arney%202010%20promoting%20the%20wellbeing%20of%20young%20Aboriginal%20children.pdf">prevent and respond to it</a>.</p>
<p>This approach must be supported by community determination, a strong research and evidence base, a trained and culturally competent workforce and effective interventions, including health promotion.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/report-on-government-services/2016/community-services/child-protection/rogs-2016-volumef-chapter15.pdf">almost 19,000</a> Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out of home care each year need the highest quality support if we are to break these cycles of harm.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68051/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alwin Chong is an Associate Research Professor, who works on projects for the Australian Centre for Child Protection at the University of South Australia. The Centre is funded through a combination of project grant funding from government and non-government organisations, competitive grant funding, philanthropic donations and University funds. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona Arney is the Director of the Australian Centre for Child Protection at the University of South Australia. The Centre is funded through a combination of project grant funding from government and non-government organisations, competitive grant funding, philanthropic donations and University funds. </span></em></p>New reports show a widespread lack of care for the cultural needs of many of the 19,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in child protection and out-of-home care.Alwin Chong, Associate Research Professor, University of South AustraliaFiona Arney, Chair and Director, Australian Centre for Child Protection, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/422472015-05-25T20:07:12Z2015-05-25T20:07:12ZSame-sex marriage should not be a matter for a conscience vote<p>There has been much debate about whether MPs <a href="https://theconversation.com/drafts/42299/edit">should be allowed a conscience vote</a> on same-sex marriage. Many suggest that religious sentiment rather than party policy should determine how parliamentarians vote. Despite what people often assume, however, same-sex marriage is a political rather than a religious issue; that is why the debate is about whether or not it should be legal, not whether or not it fits with any religious doctrine.</p>
<p>Same-sex marriage would already occur if the state did not interfere because there are plenty of people (vicars, priests, marriage celebrants) ready and willing to marry gay people. The reason this does not happen is because the state forbids it.
If you have any doubt about this, read the <a href="http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2004A01361/Html/Text#param0">Marriage Amendment Act 2004</a>, which states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Marriage means the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is nothing to stop us changing this to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That is what the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-irelands-marriage-referendum-could-go-right-down-to-the-wire-41953">Irish Constitution will now say</a>.</p>
<p>In 2004, the Australian <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/27/1085461876842.html">government decided</a>, with the support of the Labor opposition, to deny a section of the population a right that can be enjoyed by the rest of the community. To oppose same-sex marriage, therefore, means that one supports state discrimination regarding a right deemed so fundamental to human wellbeing that it is included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (<a href="http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/">Article 16</a>).</p>
<h2>Religion ought not rule in a secular democracy</h2>
<p>My preference would be for the state to stop interfering with marriage, but that is a topic for another day. Given that it does interfere, and differentiates between heterosexual and same-sex marriage, it better have very good reasons for doing so.
As stated above, theology cannot do the heavy lifting because marriage is defined by the state not religion.</p>
<p>The fact that some religions suggest same-sex unions are an abomination is also irrelevant. The liberal-democratic state should not be in the business of imposing the religious beliefs of one group on another group. A religious person who finds such unions contradict her faith should pause before entering into one, but she has no good reason for stopping other people from doing so.</p>
<p>Opposition does not come only from the religious. In a <a href="http://www.annesummers.com.au/conversations/julia-gillard/">conversation with Anne Summers</a> at the Sydney Opera House, former prime minister Julia Gillard told the audience she is opposed to same-sex marriage because marriage has traditionally been between a man and a woman. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E-mChLO917s?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Julia Gillard offered a couple of arguments against same-sex marriage, neither of which stands up well.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is a terrible argument. Wives were traditionally deemed the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverture">property of the husband</a> and rape within marital bonds was permitted. I doubt Gillard would offer her support for these traditions simply because that is how we used to do things.</p>
<p>Gillard also offered a more general opposition to all forms of marriage based on her feminist beliefs. On these grounds, however, same-sex marriage seems better than the heterosexual version because it is not founded on a tradition of male domination. There is certainly nothing in Gillard’s anti-marriage stance that supports discriminating against same-sex marriage. </p>
<p>The main point, however, is that Gillard’s distaste for marriage may be a good reason for her to avoid it, but it is not a good reason for disallowing it for other people. </p>
<h2>Rights of children are a furphy too</h2>
<p>But, some people will protest, “What about the children?” This concern was raised in the debate in Ireland by (despite scandals over child abuse) supporters of the Catholic Church. </p>
<p>Well, what about the children? It turns out they are just fine. The social science data shows that children raised by same-sex couples are <a href="http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/gender-society/same-sex-marriage-children-well-being-research-roundup">no better or worse off</a> than children raised by heterosexual couples despite the social ostracism they often face. If we really care about these children we can help them by removing the stigma attached to same-sex marriage.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82808/original/image-20150525-32555-1b2up0q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82808/original/image-20150525-32555-1b2up0q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82808/original/image-20150525-32555-1b2up0q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82808/original/image-20150525-32555-1b2up0q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82808/original/image-20150525-32555-1b2up0q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82808/original/image-20150525-32555-1b2up0q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1038&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82808/original/image-20150525-32555-1b2up0q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1038&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82808/original/image-20150525-32555-1b2up0q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1038&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 1959, after Gladys Namagu was prohibited from marrying her white fiance, Mick Daly, the power to ban interracial marriage was removed without any conscience vote.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://hdl.handle.net/10070/56466">Douglas Lockwood Collection/Northern Territory Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The arguments above suggest that MPs should not be allowed a conscience vote on same-sex marriage. It is a matter of conscience whether a parliamentarian decides to marry a person of the same sex, but it is not a matter of conscience whether other people are allowed to do so.</p>
<p>If party leaders suggested a conscience <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-01/croomemarriage/2778326">vote on inter-racial marriages</a> or marriages between Catholics and Protestants there would be outrage, but this is exactly what is happening with same-sex marriage. The position of the party leaders should be clear: all party members should be required to vote in favour of same-sex marriage. In Labor’s case, that is consistent with the party’s policy platform. To allow otherwise is to condone discrimination. </p>
<p>It is a great shame that Australia is so far behind the times on this issue. Ireland is a country where homosexuality was outlawed until 1993 and yet they legalised same-sex marriage this year and in Friday’s referendum they voted by a large majority to reify this decision by changing their constitution. If conservative Catholic Ireland can do it, I am sure we can.
</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42247/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David van Mill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Same-sex marriage is about state recognition of the union between two people and is a political issue. Religious belief can apply in a church and in individual decisions, but not to a secular state.David van Mill, Associate Professor in Political Science and International Relations, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/421082015-05-25T01:28:53Z2015-05-25T01:28:53ZYour child is missing. Would you want their adoption to be easier?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82659/original/image-20150522-12512-1l7iadh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Millions of children in overseas orphanages ... would dearly love to have parents', claims Tony Abbott, and his government is making intercountry adoption easier.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.intercountryadoption.gov.au/">Screenshot/Intercountry Adoption Australia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine for one moment your child went missing. It’s a common enough event worldwide for today, May 25, to be declared <a href="http://www.missingpersons.gov.au/awareness/campaigns/youthchildrens-day">International Missing Children’s Day</a>. Surely you would expect no stone to be left unturned to find your child - even if took six months, a year, or two. </p>
<p>But how would you feel if your child was permanently given to someone else before this happened? This is exactly what happens to many families around the world. Parents are targeted by recruiters and children are bought or <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/07/kidnapped-and-sold-inside-the-dark-world-of-child-trafficking-in-china/278107/">stolen and sold</a>. Other children are lost, separated by war or disaster, or left for temporary safekeeping in children’s homes.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Some intercountry adoptions involve children stolen from their parents.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pushing adoption of ‘millions of orphans’</h2>
<p>Last week, Prime Minister Tony Abbott <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/new-agency-to-guide-parents-who-want-to-adopt-children-from-overseas-20150516-gh34d8.html">launched a new government agency and website</a> promoting intercountry adoption, and repeated <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-business-of-orphanages-where-do-orphans-come-from-38485">the dubious claim</a> that “there are millions of children in overseas orphanages who would dearly love to have parents”. It’s part of a multi-million-dollar <a href="http://www.intercountryadoption.gov.au/">service for prospective and adoptive parents</a> intended to speed up adoptions of children from overseas. </p>
<p>The website rehashes what prospective and adoptive parents already know through state and federal departments. There is no information for adult intercountry adoptees, no additional post-adoption support, no research publications – apart from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/adoptions/">yearly reports</a> – and no information about who is staffing this call centre. All in all, it’s a costly exercise for not much return. </p>
<p>The same pressures we see operating in Australia are <a href="http://www.brandeis.edu/investigate/adoption/">more intense at the international level</a>. For <a href="http://aaf.sagepub.com/content/24/2/45.short?rss=1&ssource=mfc">over 60 years</a> the focus of many national governments and adoption agencies has not been on re-uniting children with their families. Instead the aim has been to adopt children as quickly as possible.</p>
<p>Over the years many cases have shown that even when families do find their children they are not returned once separation is made permanent through adoption. These cases become more complicated, adversarial and unresolvable the older children become.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The case of an Indian family whose daughter was kidnapped for adoption is not an isolated one.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Quick and easy’ runs counter to proper process</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.hcch.net/upload/outline33e.pdf">subsidiarity principle</a> outlined in the <a href="http://www.hcch.net/index_en.php?act=text.display&tid=45">Hague Convention provisions on adoption</a> requires governments to consider in-country solutions first. This is one of the issues scheduled for discussion at the <a href="http://www.hcch.net/index_en.php?act=progress.listing&cat=8">Special Commission meeting</a> of the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) in June 2015. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> and the subsidiarity principle in the Hague Convention on intercountry adoption, children have a right to be raised by their families, families are entitled to support, and suitable <a href="http://www.unicef.org/protection/alternative_care_Guidelines-English.pdf">in-country alternative care must be provided</a>. </p>
<p>Where intercountry adoption is an option, re-unification is usually not extensively pursued if at all. Not finding the child’s family, or failing to provide families with support, turns on the green light for adoptions to proceed. Children become “abandoned” or <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-business-of-orphanages-where-do-orphans-come-from-38485">“orphans” on paper</a> for this purpose.</p>
<p>For many, the convention on adoption is interpreted as a means to make adoption happen quickly. Thus, if re-unification with family members takes too long, adoption can be considered (see chapter six of the Hague Convention <a href="http://www.hcch.net/upload/adoguide_e.pdf">Guide to Good Practice</a>). </p>
<p>Few resources are committed to a child’s right to their family and culture. A child’s right to their family is often <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/investigate/adoption/bgop-ed.html">over-ridden by a Western view</a> of what “family” means and a sense of urgency for permanency through adoption. Intercountry adoption in the “best interests” of children is well resourced. </p>
<p>This presents complex questions as children should have stability, but there are other ways of providing good care and stability until the need for adoption is properly determined. The mantra of “children looking for a permanent family” is often used in adoption circles to justify adoption, but at what point does “permanent family” no longer mean their own family? It is important that children are not legally separated from their families and countries until all avenues, including family assistance, are legitimately exhausted.</p>
<p>The risk is that influential parties who support speedier and easier adoptions will use the Hague meeting in June to push for time frames that will effectively extinguish re-unification possibilities and legitimise unnecessarily speedy processes.</p>
<p>Searching and re-unification are time-consuming and resource-intensive. But these processes are not impossible and are undertaken by some international and smaller organisations. An Australian adoptee was even able to find his own family in India using Google Earth.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">One adoptee in Australia tracked down his own family in India using Google Earth.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A problem arises when the agency tasked with finding a child’s family is often the same one facilitating adoptions. Some seem to believe that there is nothing wrong with an open market in children where children move seamlessly across borders in both directions much like goods and services in global economies and trade agreements. Others have a commitment to safeguarding children’s rights and the rights of families affected by adoption who do not have a voice, and are concerned about the long-term effects on everyone when adoptions are not conducted well.</p>
<p>Adoption as the permanency solution appears to have taken on a religious fervour to the exclusion of all else. But one size never fits all.</p>
<h2>Focus must be on original family first</h2>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_adoption">Open adoptions</a> will also be under discussion at the Hague as a means of offering a remedial response to the separation of families. Where adoption does occur, open adoption is important.</p>
<p>However, the realities of intercountry adoption may mean this is just an aspiration – assuming the definition refers to open and continuing relationships between the children, their families and adoptive families. Because there are no enforcements for adoptive parents to continue such costly and emotionally difficult arrangements, it is likely to remain aspirational. </p>
<p>A small number of adoptive parents most certainly do establish and maintain contact, especially in those cases where they have discovered corruption or child trafficking. These adoptive parents have gone out of their way to find the child’s family, placing the child’s needs first.</p>
<p>It would be a sad day if discussions about the subsidiarity principle resulted in setting time frames to speed up intercountry adoptions, instead of redirecting resources to re-unification, family sustainability and appropriate in-country care before adoption is considered. A proper process benefits everyone. </p>
<p>So what should “proper process” mean? I suppose it comes down to what you would expect if it was your child who was missing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42108/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patricia Fronek does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Most of the world’s ‘orphans’ are not orphans at all and many are caught up in a global trade in meeting demand for adoption. Making intercountry adoption easier adds to the risks for these children.Patricia Fronek, Senior Lecturer, School of Human Services and Social Work, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/330902014-10-22T19:20:06Z2014-10-22T19:20:06ZInfographic: a snapshot of Australia’s child protection services<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64434/original/nrcpvdsb-1415838684.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Click for full graphic. </span> </figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62490/original/fptz63xb-1413956668.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62490/original/fptz63xb-1413956668.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=6625&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62490/original/fptz63xb-1413956668.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=6625&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62490/original/fptz63xb-1413956668.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=6625&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62490/original/fptz63xb-1413956668.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=8326&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62490/original/fptz63xb-1413956668.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=8326&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62490/original/fptz63xb-1413956668.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=8326&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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Emil Jeyaratnam, Data + Interactives Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/233772014-02-20T05:54:31Z2014-02-20T05:54:31ZForcing mothers to breastfeed is no way to help children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41953/original/9jhpdykv-1392807439.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C3067%2C2304&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Knowledge is power. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/daquellamanera/2397006173/">Daquella Manera</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Breastfeeding has again been frothing up debate after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) introduced <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/uae/government/fnc-passes-mandatory-breastfeeding-clause-for-child-rights-law">a clause</a> to its Child Rights law that makes it mandatory to breastfeed children for the first two years of a their life. Ahmed Al Shamsi, a member of the country’s Federal National Council, said the practice was now “a duty and not an option”.</p>
<p>Breastfeeding is the norm for mother and child as recognised by <a href="http://www.unicef.org/eapro/breastfeeding_on_worldwide_agenda.pdf">UNICEF</a> and the <a href="http://www.who.int/topics/breastfeeding/en/">WHO</a>, and supported by numerous scientific studies. </p>
<p>Using the law to increase breastfeeding rates, however, is unlikely to succeed if at the same time it erodes a mother’s rights. And approaches to improve breastfeeding rates that do little to <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1121812/">educate and empower</a> mothers are <a href="http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2012/07/25/ajcn.112.037622.short?rss=1">counterproductive</a>.</p>
<p>During a debate on the clause, Salem Al Ameri, a council member for Abu Dhabi, said that Islam supported breastfeeding as a right for all children. But not all within the council supported the clause. Mariam Al Roumi, UAE’s minister for social affairs, said such a law could lead to husbands suing their wives if they did not breastfeed. “This part of the law can be a burden,” she said. “If the law forced women to breastfeed, this could lead to new court cases.”</p>
<h2>Punishing non-breastfeeders</h2>
<p>By maintaining that breastfeeding is a right for all children, the clause aims to foster strong mother-child relationships. This idea (and suggested duration) is taken from the Qur'an. But the Qur'an itself doesn’t stipulate mandatory breastfeeding.</p>
<p>More weight should be given to a child’s right to access breast milk (rather than breastfeeding per se), especially as they have no voice. But ultimately it is a mother’s right to choose how she feeds her baby. It’s a balance between mother and child but choice does need to reside with the mother. Messing with that undermines relationships.</p>
<p>Not all mothers can breastfeed, this can be due to physical problems such as breast tissue not developing properly or chronic health conditions like diabetes, and certainly not all can breastfeed for a full two years. Donor milk can be a viable alternative, and the new UAE clause includes paid provision of wet nurses for those unable to feed. It’s a preferred option over formula, and as it’s paid for by the state, cheaper too. But it may be a less empowering option than a mother obtaining donor milk and feeding her child herself.</p>
<p>As raised by Al Roumi, the legislation allows for husbands to sue wives if they don’t breastfeed throughout the first two years of their child’s life. How enforcement would work is unclear but punitive outcomes (fines or even jail) from the state could be used if husbands were to report or take action against their wives for not adhering to the new law. Technically, a mother whose milk supply dwindles and is unable to meet their two year quota may be prosecuted.</p>
<p>Using negative consequences to threaten mothers may actually lower breastfeeding rates and morale as women experiencing issues will feel pressure that may <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22369602">adversely</a> rather than positively impact breastfeeding. Parents may also hide what they are doing or not doing for fear of punishment, rather than seeking out support if there’s a problem. How women are judged to be in genuine need of a wet nurse criteria and any stigma that comes with that remains to be seen. </p>
<h2>Women’s and mothers’ rights</h2>
<p>In the UAE, a woman and her breasts belong to her husband. The law now makes her breasts the property of the child for the first two years of its life.</p>
<p>The rights of the child to have a chance at the <a href="http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/leslie_burby.html">best life possible</a> are acknowledged but not <a href="http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/practical-parenting/baby/feeding/article/-/21171893/uae-passes-breastfeeding-law/">the rights of mothers</a>. Unsurprisingly, there has been criticism from <a href="http://muslimvillage.com/2014/01/31/49427/uae-mothers-must-breastfeed-for-two-years/">some UAE mothers</a>.</p>
<p>Mandatory breastfeeding is unlikely to become standard in other countries, but incentives like <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10442290/New-mothers-bribed-to-breastfeed-by-NHS-with-200-shopping-vouchers.html">being paid to breastfeed</a>, being trialed in the UK, also send out <a href="http://nz.lifestyle.yahoo.com/practical-parenting/baby/feeding/article/-/19803323/financial-incentives-to-breastfeed-a-waste-of-money/">potentially dangerous signals</a>. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/20/not-ashamed-giving-mothers-incentives-breastfeed">The claim</a> that paying mothers will raise the perceived value of breastfeeding can be countered because it also disempowers women in much the same way as the UAE scheme: both possess a level of handing over control of your body to others.</p>
<h2>Knowledge not legislation</h2>
<p>Both carrot and stick-based approaches treat symptoms (low breastfeeding rates) and not the cause (why are breastfeeding rates so low?). Developing education programmes and reaching out to women and empowering them is the way to do it instead, taking a community approach to improve breastfeeding rates, not a law-based one.</p>
<p>Alongside these, other measures that could help include breastfeeding rooms in workplaces, better access to childcare, investing in milk banks and providing incentives for breast milk donation, and even, as has been suggested elsewhere, taxing formula. Ultimately, the answer lies in knowledge, consideration of the mother and child, rather than excessive legislation. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23377/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Metcalf does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Breastfeeding has again been frothing up debate after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) introduced a clause to its Child Rights law that makes it mandatory to breastfeed children for the first two years of…Victoria Metcalf, Lecturer in Genetics, Lincoln University, New ZealandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/223962014-01-30T01:08:47Z2014-01-30T01:08:47ZChildren and human rights abuses: coming to an international stage?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39994/original/qkrnkb68-1390887760.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children in Australia will not be among those allowed to bring complaints of rights abuses by governments to the UN.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Lukas Coch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the first time, children will soon be able to bring complaints of human rights violations to the United Nations. Although the UN’s <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> has been in operation since 1990, there has not been a mechanism for children to bring a complaint that a government is breaching their rights until now. </p>
<p>This is in stark contrast to the UN’s other major human rights treaties, all of which have a process for people to bring allegations of human rights abuses.</p>
<p>In December 2011, the UN sought to rectify this omission by adopting an <a href="https://treaties.un.org/doc/source/signature/2012/CTC_4-11d.pdf">Optional Protocol</a> to the convention. This sets up a system for children to bring a complaint to the committee, made up of 18 independent, international child rights experts. The Optional Protocol enters into force three months after the tenth country ratifies it and, on January 14, Costa Rica did just that.</p>
<p>Therefore, from April 14, children will be able to bring a complaint of a rights violation to the UN. More accurately, only children from Albania, Bolivia, Gabon, Germany, Montenegro, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, Slovakia and Costa Rica will be able to bring complaints. So far, these are the only countries that have ratified the Optional Protocol.</p>
<p>Australia ratified the convention in 1990 and has also ratified both of its other Optional Protocols, <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/OPACCRC.aspx">one</a> on child soldiers and the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/OPSCCRC.aspx">other</a> on the sale of children into prostitution and child pornography. But can we expect Australia to ratify this latest protocol?</p>
<p>The answer is probably “eventually”. In other words, we shouldn’t hold our breath. Although Australia, under the Hawke government, was quick to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it has been less keen to submit itself to the complaints procedures under various UN human rights treaties.</p>
<p>Seven UN treaty committees can receive individual complaints of human rights abuses. This will grow to eight once the children’s committee joins this group. Australia has submitted itself to the jurisdiction of only five of these. </p>
<p>In each case it was many years (and in some cases decades) after the process was set up that Australia jumped on board, and each time it was a Labor government that took the initiative. If the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour, we should not expect the current Coalition government to allow children in Australia to bring a complaint of human rights abuses by the government to the UN.</p>
<p>There are a few reasons why the government might be fearful of empowering the committee to make decisions on individual complaints of human rights breaches by children. First, Australians have a strong track record of successful complaints being taken to the UN. Since the famous <a href="http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/undocs/html/vws488.htm">Toonen decision</a> in 1994, which found Tasmania’s laws criminalising homosexuality to be a breach of human rights, Australia has been found to have violated the human rights of complainants on at least 33 occasions. </p>
<p>Globally, Australia has the fourth-highest number of adverse findings by UN treaty committees, behind Jamaica, Uruguay and South Korea. This suggests high levels of awareness of the option of taking a human rights complaint to the UN.</p>
<p>The second reason that the Australian government might be concerned about allowing children to take a human rights complaint to the committee is that this committee recently conducted a periodic review of Australia’s overall compliance with the convention. It was <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-must-do-better-at-protecting-childrens-rights-7876">highly critical</a> of our treatment of children, particularly Indigenous children, children seeking asylum and children with disabilities.</p>
<p>Should Australia ratify the Optional Protocol, it is quite likely that children from these three vulnerable groups would be keen to seek redress from the UN.</p>
<p>However, there is one reason to be hopeful. Last year, Australia appointed its <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/about/commissioners/ms-megan-mitchell-national-childrens-commissioner">first Children’s Commissioner</a>, Megan Mitchell. This was a very welcome development. Maybe she will be able to persuade the government that in order to fully protect the rights of children in Australia, it should ratify the Optional Protocol.</p>
<p>However, given Tony Abbott’s record on children’s rights to date, I confess to not being optimistic. After all, last month he <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/tony-abbott-admits-to-smacking-his-children-rules-out-ban-20131212-2z7gw.html">rejected a report</a> from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child calling for a ban on smacking children. This does not suggest he is keen to give that committee more opportunities to criticise Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22396/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paula Gerber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For the first time, children will soon be able to bring complaints of human rights violations to the United Nations. Although the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child has been in operation since…Paula Gerber, Associate Professor, Human Rights Law, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199262013-11-07T14:34:31Z2013-11-07T14:34:31ZWhy euthanasia for children in Belgium is wrong<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34682/original/2z6dvqr9-1383821365.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C1019%2C761&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How do you explain finality to a child?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daquella Manera</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/17/health/belgium-minor-euthanasia/">first child to die by euthanasia</a> in Belgium took place in September 2016 after the country introduced an <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/belgium-considering-unprecedented-law-to-grant-euthanasia-for-children-dementia-patients/2013/10/31/67fd55be-4200-11e3-b028-de922d7a3f47_story.html">unprecedented law</a> that allows for the voluntary euthanasia of children. </p>
<p>Voluntary euthanasia is intentionally ending a life at the request of the patient. It is lawful, on various <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7322520.stm">differing grounds</a>, in several jurisdictions, including Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19890220">In Belgium</a>, the patient must be in a condition of constant and unbearable physical or psychological suffering resulting from a serious and incurable disorder caused by illness or accident, for which medical treatment is futile, and there must be no possibility of improvement. The patient must also be an adult. </p>
<p>But extending this to children was a bad proposal because of misconceptions about voluntary euthanasia. Here are four of them:</p>
<h2>Euthanasia’s the only way to end suffering</h2>
<p>This is untrue. Given modern palliative care (which is likely to be available in any European jurisdiction in which active euthanasia is proposed), there is simply no need for euthanasia. Pain and much-feared symptoms such as choking can all be <a href="http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/10893/28818/28818.pdf">controlled effectively</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/euthanasia/infavour/infavour_1.shtml">Pro-euthanasists</a> love stories about people going screaming to their deaths. The stories are out of date, and it is disingenuous or ignorant, as well as alarmist and unkind, to let people believe it’s inevitable. </p>
<p>In the vanishingly rare cases of suffering that cannot be palliated using orthodox techniques, it is always possible to sedate the patient to unconsciousness and withdraw food and fluids (sometimes referred to as “passive euthanasia”). This leads to a painless death in a few days. </p>
<p>You could say that it is intellectually dishonest to cause death in this way and deny a quick death by lethal injection, but many feel that there is a distinction of great moral weight between causing death by an act (for example an injection) and causing death by omission. That distinction has proved its worth in the law of murder.</p>
<h2>Children can make informed decisions</h2>
<p>Let’s suppose, for the sake of argument, that there are no good reasons why the law shouldn’t permit the euthanasia of a fully capacitous adult. (In fact there are some very good reasons: I touch on some of them below). And if that is so, why children shouldn’t be the beneficiaries of a similar compassionate law.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34683/original/5srgg5h5-1383821521.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34683/original/5srgg5h5-1383821521.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34683/original/5srgg5h5-1383821521.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34683/original/5srgg5h5-1383821521.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34683/original/5srgg5h5-1383821521.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34683/original/5srgg5h5-1383821521.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/34683/original/5srgg5h5-1383821521.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">No second chances.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kevin Dean/www.betaart.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Death, so far as we know, is terribly final. And if you’re opting for death, you need to be sure that you’ve got it right. This demands an understanding of many complex facts (such as prognosis – how your disease or condition is going to pan out – and your therapeutic and palliative options), and an evaluation of their significance. It’s hard for anyone; it’s likely to be impossible for children. </p>
<p>There’s lots of evidence <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1418404/">to show that</a> when we find ourselves in the situations we have most feared (for instance severe disability), we find that those situations are nothing like as unbearable as we anticipated. When we are stripped of much, we value all the more what is left. Try explaining that to a child.</p>
<p>If children can’t make an informed decision, perhaps also because they’re simply too young or too ill, they can’t be autonomous. Of course the decision-makers will usually be well-meaning, and will do their best to be well-informed and objective, but it is hard to be honest about one’s own motives.</p>
<h2>Children won’t be pressurised into death</h2>
<p>The argument that someone might be pressurised to choose to die is commonly used when talking about older people or those with dementia (also being considered in Belgium) who <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2983652/Baroness-Warnock-Dementia-sufferers-may-have-a-duty-to-die.html">might be seen as</a> a “burden”. For children, you might argue that they are less likely to be seen in this way. But children could easily think, or be actively or unconsciously persuaded, that they should opt for death because their illness causes trouble for their parents.</p>
<h2>A child is the only relevant decision-maker</h2>
<p>The autonomy argument for adults goes: “It’s my life and no-one has the right to tell me what to do with it.” This philosophy permeates and corrodes law and ethics because it doesn’t accurately reflect the way the world is. We’re relational entities. Everything I do affects someone. And in the context of the euthanasia of children, the following problems arise:</p>
<p>First, the death of a child (obviously) affects families, friends, carers and clinicians in <a href="http://bit.ly/17a7rG5">many complex ways</a>. The effects on others of my death ought to be factored into my decision to end my own life. Children won’t be able to do that when deciding whether or not to end their own lives. This again falls into the idea of informed consent.</p>
<p>Second, someone’s got to do the killing. That probably means doctors. If the law allows professional carers to become professional executioners, the medical profession will also be dangerously and irrevocably changed.</p>
<p><em>The headline and introduction text of this article were updated on September 23 2016 to reflect the introduction and first use of the law in Belgium.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19926/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Foster was counsel for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children in R (Purdy) v DPP, and is counsel for Care Not Killing in the cases of Nicklinson and Martin, shortly to be heard by the Supreme Court. He is a patron of Living and Dying Well</span></em></p>First case of voluntary euthanasia for a child has taken place. But there are fundamental issues with this procedure.Charles Foster, Research Associate, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.