Commissioner wants more done for Kiwi kids

The Children’s Commissioner is calling for the Government to fulfil a quarter-century-old promise to do better for children.

It is coming up to 25 years since the Government ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (also known as the Children’s Convention), a treaty that lays out the civil, social, health and other rights of those under the age of 18.

A new report from the Children’s Convention Monitoring Group said progress in embedding the convention into New Zealand’s laws, policies and processes had been ‘‘slow and patchy’’ over the past 25 years, and made 15 key recommendations for progress.

These include taking children and their views into account when new policies were developed, supporting children’s participation in decisions affecting them, and making sure children’s privacy was considered when collecting information about them.

The report, called ‘‘Getting It Right: Building Blocks’’, found New Zealand’s legislation was ‘‘out of step’’ with international standards and there was ‘‘ no overarching strategy for children or mechanisms to ensure that we do things like collect data or spend public money in ways that respect, protect and fulfil children’s rights’’.

Systems needed

Children’s Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft said there was ‘‘little chance of the [Children’s] Convention being comprehensively put into effect in New Zealand’’ if the steps outlined in the report were not put in place.

He said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s hopes of New Zealand being the best place in the world to be a child was ‘‘a vision we can all get behind’’, but systems needed to be put in place to make it happen.

‘‘Recent initiatives such as the Child Poverty Reduction Bill and the proposed Child Wellbeing Strategy are positive steps towards improving the lives of children in New Zealand.

‘‘We need to ensure these are not one-off actions,’’ Judge Becroft said.

In October 2016, a report prepared by the UN’S Children’s Committee directly challenged New Zealand to create a comprehensive plan to reduce the number of children living in poverty.

It said urgent measures were needed on issues to deal with violence, abuse and neglect, children deprived of a family environment, standards of living, children belonging to minority or indigenous groups, child labour, and juvenile justice