Children’s Rights International
Justice is Hope
An Initiative of World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights Inc.

Social Justice: What is The Future in Australia?

Connections, Child Family and Youth Services, The 21st Annual WJ Craig Lecture, Melbourne, Friday 14 September 2007

Delivered By
The Honourable Alastair Nicholson AO, RFD, QC
Patron of Children’s Rights International
Former Chief Justice, Family Court of Australia
Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne

This paper discusses the future of social justice in Australia. The Honourable Alastair Nicholson suggests that an essential ingredient of social justice is the concept of justice. Many of us think of justice in the context of the law and the courts. It has obvious relevance there, but in his view it carries within it a much broader concept that relates to the common humanity of human beings and the need to treat them with dignity and equality. He regards justice as one of the most important values of any community and is the true measure of a civilised society.

Justice is a concept that we instinctively understand but sometimes find difficult to identify in words. It is not capable of a fixed definition but it is an ideal of which we are all aware. It has been defined as the quality of being just or fair and thus as being synonymous with fairness. However justice he thinks means much more than that.

Click here for a PDF copy of the paper.

Match making industry,
Shivakasi. India ,
© International Labour Organisation,
Photographer: Khemka A.

International Conference on Child Labour and Child Exploitation

We ask you to join us at the International Conference on Child Labour and Child Exploitation, Sunday 3rd - Tuesday 5th August 2008, Cairns, Australia. The International Conference will evaluate the progress and achievements made in relation to the eradication of the worst forms of child labour and will explore the challenges ahead in securing rights for children in the 21st century and meeting the UN Millennium Goals by 2015.

The Conference will reflect on whether the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), as defined by the ILO in Forms of Child Labour Convention No.182 (C182) and its associated Recommendation (R190), address the right issues, in the light of 21st century concerns with nationalism, identity and globalisation, or whether new approaches to protecting children’s rights are needed. The Conference will focus on the role of the organizations representing employers and workers, non-government organisations as well as governments. The Conference will engage the corporate sector with a view to bringing a concrete reality to the much vaunted concept of responsible corporate citizenship. It will highlight steps taken by some companies and organisations operating internationally to address the worst forms of exploitation in their labour obligations and their attempts to try to set higher standards .

We have become increasingly concerned about the position of children in countries where economic boom conditions has created an enormous demand for labour and particularly cheap labour, which children can provide. We are also naturally concerned about the other forms of labour exploitation of children involving sexual exploitation, trafficking and servitude which come hand in hand with the new technologies, the globalised world and the increasing movement of economic refugees across international borders. We look forward to your participation.

Click here to go to the Conference web site,

Rebuilding Children’s Lives - Mumbai Floods - 2005

Some 2,000 persons died in flashfloods and landslides triggered by continuous rain since July 24, in India's western state of Maharashtra. Thirty-seven inches of rain in one day - the heaviest rain ever recorded in Indian history - fell in Mumbai, the state's busy coastal and commercial district. More than 500 persons died in Mumbai - drowned, buried in mud, or electrocuted.

Early damage reports indicate more than 10,000 homes collapsed and at least 750 acres of cropland were destroyed, with loss of livestock. There is also widespread damage to public infrastructure - transportation systems, health clinics, schools, water and sanitation systems, etc. Relief Web reports 20 percent of the population of Maharashtra affected (approx. 20 million people). The biggest concern for humanitarian agencies working in the region: the affect on poor communities both in the city and rural areas where people living in deplorable conditions in makeshift shelters lack safe drinking water and are threatened by potential water and airborne diseases. Food shortages are also a major concern.

Click here for more information and how to help

Man with a Mission: Dileep Mhaske

Professor Dileep Mhaske's call to link the treatment of growing HIV positive people in India with human rights created ripples in the recently concluded global conference

SMITA DESHMUKH
Times News Network

A social science graduate, IIT Mumbai research scholar and now the youngest participant at the recently concluded 4th World Congress on family laws and children's rights in South Africa. Mumbai-based 26-year-old Dileep Mhaske did India proud and created ripples amongst the global health community on his findings on the HIV scene in India.

The young man's paper in Cape Town focused attention on HIV-affected people and human rights and exposed a disturbing fact - 50 per cent of the India's new HIV infection is occurring in the 10-20 age group. "The rights of these people is a concern since children below 13 years cannot have the Anti-retro viral (ARV) treatment," explains Mhaske.

Despite funds pouring in from across the globe, all is not well with the HIV programme in India, reveals Mhaske's research findings. "The 100 million dollar global fund for the ARV treatment is under-utilised. The NGOs are spending the funds on administrative work, while bureaucrats are holding the money. As a result, only 5000 HIV positive people are treated with ARV, when the need is to treat 70,000 people in India," he explains. "Mumbai alone has 30,000 HIV affected people who need ARV, but only 1,350 are treated in one place - J J Hospital," he adds.

Alarming statistics, but the IIT professor places his solution - a three level government policy. "Children cannot be barred from school as they have right to be educated. Protection is crucial as we must ensure Gen X has access to reproductive health education and finally, states must take legislative, administrative, budgetary and judicial steps to fulfill the rights of the youngsters affected by HIV."

Impressed by his call to promote synergy between health and human rights, Mhaske has already received an invitation for the next Congress. "Grants as well as working of NGOs must be supervised by the community participation. Right to information should be used as much as possible. This is battle for freedom, to reclaim the human personality," he says.

Times Of India Mumbai; Date: April 16, 2005;
Section: Bombay Times; Page Number:35

Feedback and Commentaries on the 4th World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights, Cape Town, South Africa, 20 – 23 March 2005

Hodson, David
World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights
First published in Family Lawyer, July 2005

Schepard, Andrew
Law and Children
New York Law Journal, 12th May 2005

Dr. Rajen Pillay Director - CHSA External Relations, Community Outreach/Health Services Delivery and children at the Christel House School Cape Town South Africa.

Christel House School in Cape Town, South Africa

Children's Rights International is pleased to support the efforts of the Christel House School in Cape Town, South Africa. The School, working in the townships with the poorest of the poor, attempts to help children break the cycle of poverty and cope with violence, neglect, HIV/AIDS and other diseases, unemployment, illiteracy, substance abuse and gangsterism to become self sufficient members of their community and society. The Christel House School works with 400 children and their parents in 10 different communities. It is CRI's policy to highlight and encourage support for particular worthwhile projects. To find out more about Christel House and to see how you can help click here for PDF copy of Dr Pillay’s Letter.

Children’s Rights International (CRI): The Vision

The establishment of Children’s Rights International (CRI) highlights a unique opportunity for judges, lawyers, psychologists, medical practitioners, mediators, counsellors, mental health workers, media representatives, child cares, teachers, the non-government sector & allied professionals to contribute their specialised expertise in a practical manner through education legal and other advocacy to promote and protect the interests of the most vulnerable amongst us, our children and youth. See Aims and Objectives.

Globally the lives of the young are affected by armed conflict, child labour, sexual exploitation, unemployment, homelessness, violence, disability, mental illness, diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, educational disadvantage and poverty to name just a few crucial issues. Children born in the wealthier nations are not immune from suffering. Children in all nations need their human rights protected. The Convention of the Rights of the Child was carefully drafted over a 10-year period between 1979-1989. The UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the Convention of the Rights of the Child on September 20 November 1989. 185 States have now ratified the Convention.

Children’s Rights International was established under the auspices of the World Congress on Family Law and the Rights of Children and Youth. The World Congress was originally an initiative of Australian Judges and lawyers and held its inaugural meeting in Sydney, Australia, in 1993. At that time significant emphasis was placed on issues concerning the sexual exploitation of children and in the years following the first Congress held in Sydney, great progress has been made in the implementation of legislation at a domestic and intentional level with regard to this crucial area of children’s rights.

Since that time the World Congress has become a truly international forum in which members of the judiciary, lawyers and allied professionals gather on a global basis to discuss, at the very highest levels, the diverse range of developments in international family law, legislation and policy matters as they affect the rights of the young. Subsequent World Congresses have been held in San Francisco in 1997 and in Bath, England in 2001. Importantly, those meeting have always been followed by practical outcomes for children and young people and the establishment of Children’s Rights International will be another of these. The next World Congress on Family Law and Rights of Children and Youth, will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, 20 - 23 March 2005.

The Hon. Peter Nygh

Children’s Rights International is a significant new development in the short but dynamic life of the World Congress. Under the program leadership of the leading international jurist and Hague Conference rapporteur, the Hon. Peter Nygh the Congress has placed high priority on rigorous, academic if sometimes unpopular debate. Peter Nygh sadly passed away in June 2002. Now from this unique exchange of ideas across disciplines and borders the Congress is expanding its horizons to embrace the existing capacity of professional bodies and individuals to contribute their expertise in a very practical manner to further the rights of the young everywhere.

The Hon. Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC former Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia is Founding Patron and with his Foundation Committee of leading international experts he will oversee the development of CRI. The task of establishing a permanent professionally managed organisation bringing together the judiciary; lawyers, lawyer organisations, NGO’s and associated professional groups will be headed by the newly appointed CEO, Mr Bill Jackson.

Although real progress has been made since the Convention was adopted, children are still dying in appalling numbers from preventable diseases such as malaria. Some 300,000 are child soldiers, or otherwise victims of the ultimate obscenity, war. Over 1 million are exploited every year in the multi-billion dollar sex industry. Children are bought and sold by organised crime rings and moved around the world as slaves. More than 14 million are now orphaned by HIV/AIDS; many of these will act as family heads and carry the disease themselves. 65 of the 121 million children in the world who are not in school are girls. Many many more million children live in poverty and hunger. (Collected from UNICEF sources).

In both its education and legal advocacy functions Children’s Rights International (CRI) will be seeking the active support of professionals able to contribute time, expertise and other resources pro bono. The leadership of the Foundation Committee the creation of regional advisory boards will be a crucial starting point. The success of the Children’s Rights International will be dependent upon your active support and participation, and your ideas and expertise. The media will be a key ally in our endeavours. See how to become involved.