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In Australia, there are more than 46,000 children in out-of-home care (OOHC). Most of these children have been in OOHC for more than 2 years. Similarly, there are more than 407,000 children in the United States and over 80,800 in England who are ‘looked after’ with approximately one third of these children being in OOHC for more than 2 years.
This paper concerns ‘looked after’ children's rights to contact with their birth parents. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) requires child protection systems to recognize the rights of children to maintain contact with…
This report by Save the Children Australia and UNICEF Australia explores the human, economic and strategic cost of Australia’s current policies which seek to deter asylum seekers from migrating to Australia by sea. It examines the impact of these policies in a domestic, regional and global setting, taking into account the unprecedented scale of global forced migration at present and the limited range of options currently available to those in the region with protection needs. It provides a set of alternatives which, according to organisations, would bring an end to the harm that is…
This article examines the Stand By Me (SBM) programme, which was developed in Victoria to replicate the ongoing support provided in the UK to care leavers by Personal Advisers who remain available to assist young people until 21 years of age. According to this article, evaluation of the SBM programme has shown that ongoing, holistic support, including housing support, has assisted 12 young people through the SBM pilot to access stable housing, address multiple and complex issues, and form trusting relationships with SBM workers that contribute to positive outcomes.
Parents and families, communities and governments too often are failing in their duty of care to vulnerable children, sometimes with tragic consequences. In Queensland, observers following the issue are waiting for the Palaszczuk government to release the first annual report by the Child Death Review Board that it was handed in October last year. After the parliamentary recess, it is due for release soon. The report examines the deaths of 55 children last financial year who were in the care of the state’s child safety department. Of what is known, 10 children died from assault and neglect, 10…
Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) report that refugees arriving in Australia are being treated inhumanely and abusively. According to the report, “around 1,200 men, women, and children who sought refuge in Australia, were forcibly transferred to the remote Pacific island nation of Nauru suffer severe abuse, inhumane treatment, and neglect.”
The report notes that asylum seekers (some of them have been there over three years) face neglect by health workers and service providers. AI and HRW report that it appears that Australia is intentionally abusing and…