Save the Children has today launched a new campaign calling on New Zealanders to oppose a new Government bill looking to introduce the use of physical force and re-introduce military style detention camps for the country’s most vulnerable children.

The ‘Boot the Bill’ campaign and petition asks Kiwis to make a stand against the new Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) Amendment Bill, currently before Select Committee, which, if passed, would re-introduce harmful military-style boot camps and permit the use of physical force against children.

Save the Children’s Advocacy and Research Director Jacqui Southey says evidence shows that punitive approaches like these fail to address the root causes of youth offending, such as trauma, abuse and systemic inequality, and risk causing further harm to already vulnerable children.

"This form of coercive youth justice intervention is an outdated methodology, has been tried before in New Zealand, with little to no effect in preventing youth offending and may even increase rates of reoffending," she says.

"The inclusion of allowing the use of "reasonable physical force", which in real terms is the use of physical violence to subdue a child, poses a real risk to children and is absolutely unacceptable, breaching children’s rights to be protected from all forms of violence.

"It’s time to stop criminalising our most vulnerable children and look towards policies that support positive change and ensure a brighter future for our youth."

In addition to the research, testimony provided by survivors of Abuse in State Care as part of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State Care and Faith Based Care clearly shows that children have been violently abused and traumatised in State-funded boot camp style institutions in New Zealand.

Ms Southey says as recently as 2004, Te Whakapakari Youth Programme (Te Whakapakari) was a fully State-funded boot camp style programme where children were sent as social welfare care and protection or youth justice sentencing options. While it claimed to promote drug abuse rehabilitation, self-esteem and skills development, Māoritanga and confidence building, underpinned by military style discipline, instead children suffered cruel, violent and inhumane treatment including, extreme psychological, physical and sexual abuse.

"A former Minister of Child, Youth and Family, Hon Ruth Dyson, was quoted as saying, ‘A lot of government money was put into that programme and in the end it resulted in the State funding violence and abuse towards children and young people’" she says.

"Most young offenders are victims themselves, having experienced high rates of criminal abuse, neglect, and violence, often from infancy. If New Zealand is to be truly effective in preventing youth crime, we need to be serious about preventing harm to children occurring in the first place. That means investing in programmes and policies to strengthen families, particularly those struggling, to ensure good outcomes for children in both the short and long term."

New Zealanders wanting to sign the petition can go to: Boot the Bill - Advocacy Save the Children New Zealand.

About Save the Children NZ:

Save the Children works in 120 countries across the world. The organisation responds to emergencies and works with children and their communities to ensure they survive, learn and are protected.

Save the Children NZ currently supports international programmes in Fiji, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Laos, Nepal, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Areas of work include child protection, education and literacy, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation, and alleviating child poverty.

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