The United Nations Commission on the Rights of the Child has released a report expressing serious concerns for the well-being of children in Canada – especially those who are indigenous. “The committee is deeply concerned about discrimination against children in marginalized and disadvantaged situations,” the report said, released on Thursday. The committee cited structural discrimination against indigenous and black children, “especially in terms of their access to education, health and an adequate standard of living”. The committee also noted that children with disabilities, children of migrants and children of ethnic minorities had different access to their rights depending on the province or territory. It’s the first time the commission has examined Canada’s compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in a decade, when a similar scathing report on the country’s progress was issued. The federal government did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. The convention, signed by Canada in 1991, is a global treaty that sets out the full list of rights for all children under the age of 18. Almost every country in the world has promised to protect and promote these rights. The treaty is based on four main principles: the right to non-discrimination, the best interests of the child, the right to life and development and the right to participate. United Nations experts, including lawyers, social workers, child welfare managers and a doctor, have identified several areas where these principles are not being followed in Canada. In one example, experts said the government should provide specialist health care to children in the Anishinaabe community of Grassy Narrows First Nation, Ont., Who suffer from severe and chronic physical and mental health problems as a result of mercury contamination in the water. The report also noted the discovery of insignificant tombs discovered at the sites of many former residential schools. BC First Nation Tk’emlups te Secwepemc announced in May 2021 that the ground penetration radar had located the remains of about 200 children on the grounds of the former Kamloops Residential Indian school. Since then, more possible grave sites have been identified. Indigenous and black children continue to be overrepresented in alternative forms of supervision, such as foster care, often outside their communities, the report said. They also have a higher risk of abuse, neglect and violence in alternative care than other children in Canada. “Apart from these specific groups of children, the committee also called on the federal government for failing to protect the rights of all children in our country,” said Children First Canada founder Sara Austin. UNICEF ranked Canada at one-third of the 38 richest countries in terms of child well-being in 2020, ranking the nation 30th behind Greece, Latvia and the United Kingdom. “Most people think it would be at the top, a top country in the world for kids,” Austin said. “So there is a big gap between perception and reality.” Among the many recommendations, the committee called on Canada to establish a federal, independent child rights commissioner who will be able to receive, investigate and address child complaints’ in a child-friendly and child-friendly manner. ». Other recommendations include ensuring that children’s access to public health care does not depend on their parents’s immigration status and the repeal of Article 43 of the Penal Code, which allows the use of “reasonable force” to discipline children. Many federal bills aimed at banning corporal punishment of children have failed in parliament, Austin said. The committee called for a national strategy to prevent violence against children and said Canada’s childcare system continues to fail to protect Indigenous children in particular from violence. Austin said the report represents Canada’s failure to enforce basic rights for all eight million children in the country. Several of the recommendations were originally made by the committee in its last report about a decade ago, but have not been implemented. Bill Jeffery, executive director of the Center for Science and Health Law, said in a statement Thursday that Canada ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991 “and has spent the past three decades justifying its failure to fully implement it.” these rights at national level. and provincial law “. This Canadian Press report was first published on June 9, 2022.
