'We're Better Than This' is a movement that has grown from a decision by ordinary Australians to do something about the extraordinary cruelty of our Government towards the hundreds of innocent children in detention/deterrence camps.
the sound track though iTunes or Google Play ($1.69) to help fund the campaign.
a letter to your MP to excess your concern about the situation of children in detention..
Wednesday 18th June 12.30PM-1.30PM
Refugee week
Ella Latham Auditorium, Royal Children's Hospital
Refugee Week is Australia's peak annual activity to raise awareness about the issues affecting refugees and celebrate the positive contributions made by refugees to Australian society. Refugee Week is held from Sunday to Saturday of the week that includes 20 June (World Refugee Day).
Chairman of Children's Rights International and Former Chief Justice of the Family Court, Alastair Nicholson discusses the plan to send up to 1000 asylum seekers to Cambodia on the ABC program, Lateline 18/08/2014.
(Courtesy of ABC - Lateline 18/08/2014)
A copy of the interview can also be viewed on the ABC website (click here to view the interview of the ABC website)
By Bill Jackson
Afghanistan is described as the most dangerous country in the world and there are good reasons for this. War has been the constant companion of its people for three decades and the situation is unlikely to improve once the Western powers withdraw, as they are likely to start doing as early as next year. As I write the Taliban, and various tribal warlords who wield considerable power, are resurgent and struggling for authority. Their previous treatment of women and children gives no cause for optimism.
Voice of Women Afghanistan See http://youtu.be/pgGjSRGWjpc
Children’s Rights International has been working on the ground in Cambodia with its partner Legal Aid Cambodia (LAC) since 2005. CRI’s current priority, after extensive consultation, is to help establish a Child Friendly Court system in Cambodia. Since that time, with the support of the Cambodian Ministry of Justice, the Child Justice Working Group, the NGO Working Group on Child Justice, the Australian Embassy, AusAID, and UNICEF, considerable progress has been made.
This partnership will shortly commence to roll out training programmes in Australia and later in Battambang, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh to assist Cambodian judges, prosecutors, police, prison officers, social workers and allied professionals in bringing to Cambodian children, in conflict with the law, their rights as detailed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Cambodia is a signatory. A Child Friendly Court is the aim. To establish this Court in 3 key provinces is currently seen as a 3-year project. With successful outcomes and additional funding the project could be expanded to other provinces and hopefully to include the whole of Cambodia.
Read more: Children's Rights International in Cambodia and Vietnam
In November 2009 the Chair of CRI, the Hon Alastair Nicholson, joined a group from the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne visiting Vietnam to examine the issue of child protection and child justice in that country. This involved a visit to the National Paediatric Hospital in Hanoi and attendance at a medical seminar there on the detection of child abuse conducted by Dr Anne Smith of the Royal Children’s Hospital and Professor David Wells of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.
He also participated as a co-chair in the first Vietnamese national seminar to be held on the subject of child abuse and child protection.
This intensive seminar involved a number of senior Government officials from various Government Departments and representatives of various NGO’s. The proceedings were opened by Dr Nguyen Duy Khe, the Director of Maternal and Child Health at the Ministry of Health.
The primary presentations were made by Professor Michael Dunne of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) who discussed international and Vietnamese data on child abuse. His main thesis was that indicia of international child abuse are showing substantial falls in most countries. He was supported by Dr Nguyen Thanh Huong who described the limitations of current Vietnamese data, mainly in relation to adolescents. Dr Anne Smith and Professor David Wells discussed what programs had been found to be most effective in reducing child abuse.
Read more: Children’s Rights International Initiative: Child Protection and Child Justice in Vietnam
Recently the Lasallian Foundation provided CRI with the essential seed funding necessary to roll out the Child-Friendly Court Project in Cambodia. Legal Aid Cambodia, UNICEF and AusAID are partners in this development. This project has been 5 years in development.
The videotape attachment below is an example of the productive convergence of both organisations’ work. It was produced by CRI.
Lasallian Projects in PNG See http://youtu.be/Fay9JvC-QIU.
Touch Chiva (LAC), Denzil Sprague (CRI), Kimleng |
By Margaret Harrison, CRI Board Member
CRI now has a country representative in Phnom Penh to assist us in a voluntary capacity with the many and varied administrative tasks associated with the conduct of our Cambodian juvenile justice project. Denzil Sprague is an Australian business man and long term resident of Phnom Penh, whose interest in the education and welfare of young Cambodians has already benefitted many primary school children in the district of Pouk Ressey and who has become an invaluable part of the CRI team, as a liaison person in our dealings with banks and other non-government and government organizations in Cambodia. He is a former farmer, pilot, arts/law graduate and brick factory proprietor, who in the past 4 years has assumed responsibility for the building of a school and the welfare and educational advancement of its 800 students. Many more young Cambodians have already completed their primary schooling as a result of his endeavours.
Justice for Children - Legal Aid Cambodia, See http://youtu.be/m-JvQFsmI9w.
In 2010, the Hon Alastair Nicholson made two visits to Cambodia in connection with the present project and in July 2010, co-chaired a seminar with HE Ith Rady in Phnomh Penh to examine the possibility of setting up a Children’s Court in Cambodia. That seminar was co-sponsored by Legal Aid Cambodia and Every Child Cambodia and was attended by a wide range of persons including judges and court officials, Cambodian Government representatives, police and representatives of NGO’s. The seminar was opened by the Cambodian Minister for Justice HE Ang Vongvathana and the then Australian Ambassador to Cambodia, HE Margaret Adamson.
Originating from the creation of a concept in development since 2001, Ovava Limited was founded in 2010 as a non-profit organisation committed to the advancement of bilateral relationships between Australia and the South Pacific region, focusing its work initially on the Kingdom of Tonga. Ovava is supported by the Hon. Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC chair of Childrens Rights International and Patron of Ovava.
click here for the
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Children's Rights International’s Patron, The Hon. Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC, and a volunteer film crew visited Tamil Nadu with Paul Smith, the Lasallian Foundation’s CEO, to produce a film to help the Foundation raise funds for its children’s programmes in India.
These programmes work to assist child labourers, street children, and rejected and orphaned children to help them live safe and full lives.
To contact the Lasallian Foundation:
Lasallian Foundation
PO Box 668, Malvern VIC 3144
AUSTRALIA
PH: + 61 (03) 9832 3100
FX: + 61 (03) 9822 4377 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web: http://www.lasallianfoundation.org.
Projects In Tamil Nadu, India supported by the Lasallian Foundation See http://youtu.be/X7L_IQFrcJ4.