Castan Centre for Human Rights Law

Tag: committee on the rights of the child

  • What can Australia learn from other countries about Birth Registration?

    By Paula Gerber and Amalia Fawcett Birth registration and birth certificates are very topical at the moment, with the Victorian Law Reform Commission releasing its community report on this issue. The report, which contains 26 recommendations, is intended to make it easier for people to register the births of their children and reduce the cost…

  • Victorian children to be seen and not heard

    By Erica Contini and Melissa Castan You could be forgiven for not knowing that the Victorian Parliament is passing unprecedented legislation limiting  the rights of young people to legal representation in child protection proceedings.  The changes were introduced last week, hidden in an obscure bill that gives no indication as to what it really contains,…

  • One size does not fit all when children come to court

    By Paula Gerber and Melissa Castan Two sisters aged 9 and 11 have just won a Supreme Court case in which they were claiming that they had the right to instruct their own lawyer. In A & B v Children’s Court of Victoria, the sisters were the subject of protection applications after one of them sustained…

  • Australia FINALLY gets a children’s rights commissioner

    By Paula Gerber On 27 April 2012 the Gillard Government made a long overdue announcement that it will appoint a national children’s commissioner. This person (yet to be selected) will join the six existing commissioners at the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC): Human Rights Commissioner (The Hon. Catherine Branson QC); Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander…

  • Children will soon be seen AND heard by the UN

    By Paula Gerber One month ago, on 19th December 2011, the UN General Assembly adopted the Third Optional Protocol (OP) to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CROC). This new international instrument establishes a procedure whereby children whose rights have been violated can bring a complaint to UN Committee on the Rights of…

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