RECOMMENDATIONS RELEVANT TO CHILD PARTICIPATION IN FAMILY AND CHILD WELFARE COURT PROCESSES

National Commissioner for Children and Youth

Recommendation 1: Finally, the CBA emphasizes the importance of incorporating and protecting the rights and interests of Indigenous children and youth when developing a national policy on children’s rights.

RECOMMENDATIONS RELEVANT TO CHILD PARTICIPATION IN FAMILY AND CHILD WELFARE COURT PROCESSES

Effective Monitoring through Child Rights Impact Assessments (CRIAs), etc.

Recommendation 2: Given their key role in ensuring adherence to children’s rights, CRIAs should receive adequate funding to function effectively

RECOMMENDATIONS RELEVANT TO CHILD PARTICIPATION IN FAMILY AND CHILD WELFARE COURT PROCESSES

Taking an Intersectional Approach to Children’s Rights

Recommendation 3: Upholding children’s rights requires the creation of an environment in which all children feel empowered to participate in legal proceedings that affect them, regardless of their circumstances

RECOMMENDATIONS RELEVANT TO CHILD PARTICIPATION IN FAMILY AND CHILD WELFARE COURT PROCESSES

Enhanced Awareness and Training

Recommendation 4: This could also be achieved by incorporating children’s rights into school curriculums … A holistic, rights-based education would not only preserve the best interests of the child through the expression of their views but could also enable children to further realise their rights in other areas

RECOMMENDATIONS RELEVANT TO CHILD PARTICIPATION IN FAMILY AND CHILD WELFARE COURT PROCESSES

Enhanced Awareness and Training

Recommendation 5: From a scholastic perspective, much more research is needed to understand which of the many strategies implemented across Canada (and the world) might be most helpful to children’s legal participation… This requires ongoing cooperation and collaboration between the legal and academic communities, to guarantee specialised and sensitised approaches to this topic.

RECOMMENDATIONS RELEVANT TO CHILD PARTICIPATION IN FAMILY AND CHILD WELFARE COURT PROCESSES

Enhanced Awareness and Training

Recommendation 6: Consultations should include members of the Indigenous legal community, who are best placed to speak to the needs of Indigenous children in Canada.

RECOMMENDATIONS RELEVANT TO CHILD PARTICIPATION IN FAMILY AND CHILD WELFARE COURT PROCESSES

Increasing Attention (and Resources) Must be Given to Children’s Representation

Recommendation 7: it is recommended that policy organisations focused on this issue work to demonstrate whether and how additional funding can be allocated to children’s legal representation.

RECOMMENDATIONS RELEVANT TO CHILD PARTICIPATION IN FAMILY AND CHILD WELFARE COURT PROCESSES

Participation and Representation Generally

Recommendation 8: Children’s rights to participate are in line with the UNCRC’s recommendations and FLA’s best interests provisions… and work to safeguard and prioritize children’s voices and preferences about their own well-being

RECOMMENDATIONS RELEVANT TO CHILD PARTICIPATION IN FAMILY AND CHILD WELFARE COURT PROCESSES

Participation and Representation Generally

Recommendation 9: Instead, an empowerment-based approach must be adopted and implemented that promotes, prioritizes, and ensures children’s participation in guardianship and family law proceedings regardless of age or capacity. An empowerment-based approach would be child-centred and incorporate strategies that would ensure children’s participation regardless of age and/or capacity, including legal representation, judicial interviewing, VCRs, and child-inclusive mediation.

RECOMMENDATIONS RELEVANT TO CHILD PARTICIPATION IN FAMILY AND CHILD WELFARE COURT PROCESSES

Participation and Representation Generally

Recommendation 10: As such, it is necessary to provide legal representation to all children (who choose it after obtaining meaningful information and advice about it and other choices), in all cases, including high risk cases, in order to protect their rights and promote their best interests in guardianship and family law proceedings regardless of the level of risk