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UNICEF NZ supports better recognition of children’s issues

Wellington, 7 February 2011. -- Unicef NZ supports the call by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child to the NZ Government for better recognition of matters impacting on children.

The Committee recently examined the combined 3rd and 4th periodic report of the NZ Government on progress with implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and has issued its concluding observations and recommendations*. NZ Government officials were questioned by members of the Committee in January.

UNICEF NZ is pleased that the Committee appreciated the action taken to tackle the problem of abuse and neglect.

However, of concern to the Committee was that no National Action Plan to guide policy on children’s issues had been implemented and matters that impacted on children lacked co-ordination. There was no single department or Ministry that took responsibility for children’s issues.

“The Committee noted that children are fairly invisible in legislation” says Barbara Lambourn, UNICEF NZ’s Advocacy Manager.

“There is no one batting for children at the Cabinet table. We have Ministerial portfolios for the elderly, for veterans, for disabled people, for women and even for the Rugby World Cup and for racehorses, but no Minister for Children. What does that say about the value we place on children and the matters that impact on them?”

UNICEF NZ also noted that, while the Government expressed to the Committee that it was committed to progressive implementation of the Convention, it had taken a large step backward in lowering the age at which children could face prosecution for a number of crimes from 14 to 12 years old.

“At the time, UNICEF made a submission to government and pointed out that this flew in the face of our obligation to the Convention,” says Ms Lambourn.

“The Committee regretted this move and also noted its concern at the re-introduction of military style correction camps for young offenders, a failed policy of the past that did nothing to reduce re-offending or make communities safer.”

The Committee noted its particular concern that too many Maori and Pacific people lived in poverty and infant and child mortality rates were described as “staggering”.

“The report clearly states that there is a need for more awareness and training among all sectors of society to know about and apply the Convention. The Committee, and indeed UNICEF NZ, wants to see more effort to make the provisions of the Convention much more widely understood and applied”.

* New Zealand became signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993 and submitted its combined 3rd and 4th periodic report to the UN Committee on Children in 2008.

The UN Committee report is available online: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/co/CRC.C.NZL.CO.3-4.doc

ENDS

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