Submission Link : ASA Submission link
Submission Summary:
The Committee on the Rights of the Child undertook a Call for Input on children’s rights to access to justice and effective remedies. The submission outlines the definition of access to justice for children, relating it to the legal empowerment of every child. Further, the submission highlights the barriers children face in accessing justice and remedies including, a lack of legal standing and awareness, fear of harm, time, and cost. The submission follows this with proposals to enable access to justice and remedies, recommending:
- Children have access to free, accessible, multidisciplinary, high-quality legal advice and representation that is adapted to their age and maturity, is gender and culture-sensitive, in their preferred language, and provided by practitioners with specialist knowledge on children’s rights and related issues.
- All State Parties must urgently progress to ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on a Communications Procedure to ensure children are endowed with the full legal capacity to exercise their international rights under the Convention.
- All National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) to be given power to implement robust accountability and grievance mechanisms to protect the right to individual petition for children at the domestic level.
- Multi-disciplinary, child-rights education and training for frontline workers that are likely to encounter vulnerable children.
- Stronger protections for vulnerable child witnesses in Australia.
- All unaccompanied minors be appointed an independent guardian with specialist expertise who may advocate for their best interests.
- The strengthening of the political freedoms of children globally, such that national legislation is interpreted and applied based on a presumption in favour of the unhindered exercise of these freedoms.
- All States to establish a compensation scheme that is managed by the government from which victim-survivors can claim compensation.
- All States adopt a Federal Charter that reflects the principles outlined in the UN Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice, the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Rights to a Remedy and the UN Guidelines on Justice for Child Victims.
- Trauma-informed and well-funded child-specific specialist services tailored to the form of exploitation experienced and the child’s individual needs.
- Appropriate safeguards to protect children from intimidation, threats or harm occurring before, during and after the justice process.