Australia

The report from Australia shows good implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in many areas, such as physical health. However, there is no free education, although the country is very wealthy. Also, Australia has big issues with mental health, many diagnosed ADHD patients and suicides. In addition, many previous recommendations have not been implemented and the attitude towards Asylum seekers is terrible.

The Committee recommends that the State party strengthen measures to prevent teenage pregnancies among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders girls, including by providing culturally sensitive and confidential medical advice and services. It also recommends to continue providing children with education on sexual and reproductive health as part of the mandatory school curriculum, paying special attention to preventing early pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

The Committee welcomes the establishment of the National Disability Insurance Scheme in 2013. It further recommends that the State party make clear the eligibility criteria and the types of support covered by the Scheme and ensure that the Scheme has the human, technical and financial resources necessary for its optimal and timely implementation. It also recommends to conduct awareness-raising campaigns aimed at government officials, the public and families to combat the stigmatization of and prejudice against children with disabilities and promote a positive image of such children.

The Committee urges the State party to prohibit by law the sterilization of girls with disabilities without their prior, fully informed and free consent.

To guarantee every child the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, the Committee urges the State party to promptly address the disparities in health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island children, children with disabilities, children living in remote or rural areas and children in alternative care. Australia should also address the increasing rate of child obesity.

The Committee urges the State party to invest in addressing the underlying causes of suicide and poor mental health among children, to improve knowledge about mental health with a view to promoting children’s awareness and access to support services and to ensure that the Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan has a clear focus on children and that children’s perspectives are included in the development of the response services provided. It also urges Australia to prioritize mental health service delivery to children in vulnerable situations, in particular Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children with disabilities, children in alternative care, homeless children, children living in rural and remote areas, asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children, children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children. Australia further should strengthen measures to ensure that psychostimulant drugs are prescribed to children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder only as a measure of last resort and only after an individualized assessment of the best interests of that child and to ensure also that children and their parents are properly informed about the possible side effects of this medical treatment and about non-medical alternatives.

The Committee is very concerned about the State party’s position that the Convention does not extend to protection from climate change. The Committee emphasizes that the effects of climate change have an undeniable impact on children’s rights, for example the rights to life, survival and development, non-discrimination, health and an adequate standard of living. It is also concerned that the State party has made insufficient progress on the goals and targets set out in the Paris Agreement and about its continuing investment in extractive industries, in particular coal. The Committee expresses its concern and disappointment that a protest led by children calling on government to protect the environment received a strongly worded negative response from those in authority, which demonstrates disrespect for the right of children to express their views on this important issue.
The Committee urges the State party to ensure that children’s views are taken into account in developing policies and programmes addressing climate change, the environment and disaster risk management and to increase children’s awareness and preparedness for climate change and natural disasters. It also urges Australia to promptly take measures to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases by establishing targets and deadlines to phase out the domestic use and export of coal and to accelerate the transition to renewable energy, including by committing to meeting 100 per cent of its electricity needs with renewable energy.

The Committee recommends that the State party ensure the legal accountability of Australian companies and their subsidiaries for violations of children’s rights, including in relation to the environment and health, committed within the State party or overseas by businesses domiciled in its territory, and establish mechanisms for the investigation and redress of such abuses. It also recommends to require companies to undertake assessments and consultations and to make full public disclosure of the environmental, health-related and children’s rights impacts of their business activities and their plans to address such impacts. Australia should further undertake campaigns to raise the awareness of those working in the tourism industry and the public at large on the harmful effects of the sexual exploitation of children in the context of travel and tourism and widely disseminate the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism of the World Tourism Organization.

The Committee again regrets that its previous recommendations have not been implemented and remains seriously concerned about the enduring overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children as well as children with disabilities and their parents and carers in the justice system. It is also concerned about the high number of children in detention, both on remand and after sentencing, and that children in detention are not being separated from adults.
The Committee urges the State party to bring its child justice system fully into line with the Convention and to explicitly prohibit the use of isolation and force, including physical restraints, as a means of coercion or to discipline children under supervision, promptly investigate all cases of abuse and maltreatment of children in detention and adequately sanction the perpetrators. The Committee further urges Australia to ensure that children are detained in separate facilities and, for pretrial detention, to ensure that detention is regularly and judicially reviewed as well as to ensure that children with disabilities are not detained indefinitely without conviction and that their detention undergoes regular judicial review. Also, Australia should provide children in conflict with the law with information about their rights and how to report abuses.

Australia needs to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children as well as children living in remote areas and children in child protection services are registered at birth and receive free birth certificates. Children born through international surrogacy arrangements should be able to obtain Australian nationality through uniformly applied rules through the country. These children also have to be able to access information about their origin.

In addition, the Committee urges the State party to address the high rate of homelessness among children, particularly focusing on children leaving alternative care, and to include children under 12 years of age in the Reconnect Programme.

Concluding observations on the fifth and sixth periodic reports released on 27 September 2019. More information about education in Australia: https://www.goodschools.com.au and https://www.dese.gov.au