Mana tamariki mā
Help make children’s rights real in Aotearoa
Kia ora and welcome to the Children’s Rights Alliance - the collective voice for children’s rights in Aotearoa
Together, we work towards an Aotearoa where all our children and tamariki are cared for, respected and protected, have what they need, and participate in their own lives, families, whānau, communities and wider society.
CRAANZ Annual General Meeting 2024
Wednesday 25 September 2024
Please read our Annual Report 2024
We extend a warm invitation to our AGM and seminar jointly hosted by the Children’s Rights Alliance Aotearoa NZ (CRAANZ), the Children’s Issues Centre, and University of Otago, Wellington.
Whanaketia - The Royal Commission (Abuse in Care)’s recommendations: A call for accountability for and realisation of children’s rights in Aotearoa
As part of this event, we'll be diving deeper into the Abuse in Care Inquiry, and the state of care today, in a proactive discussion that looks at next steps in strengthening children's rights, care and protection.
We are delighted to confirm two keynote speakers:
Tupua Urlich, Kaitiaki – Te tira mātanga atawhai ā motu, National Care Experienced Lead, VOYCE Whakarongo Mai
I am the National Care Experienced Lead at VOYCE - Whakarongo Mai (New Zealand's first and only National Independent Advocacy organisation for Tamariki/Rangatahi Children and Young People in care or with Care Experience). I spent most of my early life and adolescent years under the care of the state in NZ from age 5 through to 17. My experiences in care coupled with solid support from VOYCE has enabled me to represent my whānau (family) in care on both the domestic and international stage, bringing awareness to the reality of our young people doing it tough trapped in systems that often do not perform or give young people the kind of childhoods we would all wish to have. Throughout my advocacy career I have been humbled to meet and connect with so many resilient, like-minded young leaders who have emerged from the care system with a desire to improve that very system, not for themselves but for others who may need that support or intervention in their lives.
I am going to emphasise that abuse is not historical, it is very much present today. I will provide my insights through my lived experiences of how the failures Sonja will speak about affect young people and their whanau. Real change and accountability are needed to protect tamariki and rangatahi moving forward.
Sonja Cooper, Principal Partner, Cooper Legal
Crucial findings about repeated failures by the Crown and faith-based organisations have been made by the Royal Commission of Inquiry (Abuse in Care) in its final report, Whanaketia. These failures are not only linked to specific individuals and institutions, but also an overall lack of system-wide accountability and legal consequence for ignoring and breaching rights. The Royal Commission has made a number of recommendations, some of which are critical to preventing history from repeating, including incorporating clearly enforceable rights and duties and establishing a new “care safe” regulatory system and national strategy. In this keynote, I will traverse the key findings and recommendations, and what the Royal Commission envisages as Aotearoa’s way forward.
I started my legal career in litigation at two of New Zealand’s biggest law firms. In 1987, I began practicing as a Youth Advocate, and I continue advocating for young people in conflict with the law today. In 1995, I started Cooper Legal, a firm that specialises in seeking redress from state and faith-based organisations on behalf of survivors of abuse in care. In 2016, I travelled with other civil society groups to represent the interests of New Zealand children when the state was examined by UNCROC. Cooper Legal continues to lobby national and international human rights bodies for better outcomes for its clients. More recently, I gave extensive evidence and represented adults who were in care, mainly as children, before the Royal Commission of Inquiry (Abuse in Care).
We hope to provide an opportunity to come together in a safe and supportive space, to learn and reflect, with a collective vision of enduring change for children’s rights in Aotearoa.
We are grateful to have The Survivors Experiences Service present at the seminar. Their website provides information about resources for survivors, including information about support services. Phone 0800 456 090 or Text 8328 (weekdays 8:30am - 4.30pm)
Thirty years of children’s rights in Aotearoa - using the past to shape the future
It has been over thirty years since New Zealand ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Thirty years on from ratification, we are at a turning point for children – now is a critical time to make children’s rights real in practice – for all children, in all circumstances, all rights.
It is, therefore, very timely that in 2023 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Children released their report on New Zealand’s progress on children’s rights.
As we commence the next review cycle, let’s use the 30th anniversary of New Zealand ratifying the Convention, to ask:
“In another 30 years-time, in 2053, when we look back, what progress will we see for children stemming from this point in time and this UN review? What do we need to do to uphold the rights of our children now, and to be good ancestors for future generations of children in our country?”
Follow the UN’s review of children’s rights in New Zealand
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child reviewed New Zealand’s progress on children’s rights on 26-27 January 2023
It is exciting to be at this point in this, the 6th, children’s rights reporting cycle. Many thanks to all those who have contributed to our reporting over the last 3 years - the information and insights you have shared have enabled us to paint a clear picture of the current children’s rights situation in Aotearoa and, importantly, to signpost a way forward to an Aotearoa where all children experience all their rights, in all circumstances.
Read our 2022 Children’s Rights Alliance Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Next Steps: In February 2023, the UN Committee issued a set of comments and recommendations designed to improve children’s rights situation in Aotearoa (Concluding Observations), highlighting up to 6 issues for urgent attention.
So, as one reporting cycle draws to a close, another is just beginning! Our job as civil society is to follow up on the Committee’s recommendations, using them to inform and strengthen our advocacy for children over the next reporting cycle.
We look forward to continuing to build our Alliance and working together over the next reporting cycle, to make rights real for all children in Aotearoa – all rights, all children, all circumstances.
Find out more about the UN reporting process, and read the thematic reports provided to the UN Committee, here.
“It is important to emphasise here, that when New Zealand ratified the CRC in 1993, that amounted to a promise that every single child in New Zealand was entitled to the protection of every single right provided in every single one of the 54 articles, without qualification or compromise.”
— Judge A J Fitzgerald in New Zealand Police/Oranga Tamariki v LV [2020] NZYC 117 at [72]
Nau mai, haere mai - will you join us?
Everyone is welcome to join the Children’s Rights Alliance; any child, young person, adult, family, whānau or non-government organisation who supports children’s rights, Te Tiriti O Waitangi, and the Children’s Rights Alliance’s aims and values.
Amplify your own effectiveness by joining us – together we can make a difference for children and tamariki in Aotearoa.