320 search results for
Youth in care
Recommendation 8:
Children’s rights, participation, welfare, and best interests are unquestionably interlinked. Children are persons with their own legal rights and must be guaranteed the right to participate in guardianship and family law proceedings (Grover, 2015; Martinson & Tempesta, 2018). Children’s rights to participate are in line with the UNCRC’s recommendations and FLA’s best interests provisions (Dundee, 2016), and work to safeguard and prioritize children’s voices and preferences about their own well-being.
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Recommendation 14:
Children must be provided with legal representation to ensure that their best interests are at the forefront of decision-making in high-risk cases (Elrod, 2016; Lovinsky & Gagne, 2015; Martinson & Tempesta, 2018; Tempesta, 2019), which includes providing court appointed and funded lawyers to ensure that children’s claims are meaningfully considered and given due weight (Elrod, 2016).
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Recommendation 25:
Children in temporary care must be kept within an accessible distance to the parent with due consideration to the parents’ circumstances (financial etc). Where a child needs to be close to their home nation, parents must be given financial supports to ensure that there is adequate access to maintain family connection.
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Recommendation 18:
Children are often not informed about their participatory rights in family law and in child welfare proceedings. Yet the UN Committee General Comments conclude that receiving this information is essential to implementing participation rights. The CBA 2020 Report recommends that in all cases where courts formally assess children’s best interests, children should be meaningfully informed about their participation rights, including their right to independent legal representation.
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Recommendation 2:
The literature has noted a specific need to monitor children’s rights across Canada (Byrne & Lundy, 2019; Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children, 2016; CBA, 2020; Collins, 2019). Options for effective monitoring include establishing regional institutions and a National Commissioner dedicated to regularly assessing children’s rights, conducting ongoing child rights impact assessments, and ratifying the Third Optional Protocol to provide a communications procedure for children and youth to directly contact the UN CRC Committee regarding child rights complaints (Byrne & Lundy, 2019; Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children, 2012; CBA, 2020; Collins, 2019).
Child Rights Impact Assessments (CRIAs) should inform the development of policy on children’s rights, as well as aid in the assessment of the actual impacts of policies related to child rights (Byrne & Lundy, 2019; CBA, 2020). Following the UN CRC Committee’s recommendations, the CBA (2020) notes that CRIAs should involve perspectives from various stakeholders, including children. Currently, CRIAs are not systematically used in decision-making across any provinces and territories other than New Brunswick and Saskatchewan (CBA, 2020). Given their key role in ensuring adherence to children’s rights, CRIAs should receive adequate funding to function effectively (Martinson & Raven, 2020a).
Child Rights Impact Assessments (CRIAs) should inform the development of policy on children’s rights, as well as aid in the assessment of the actual impacts of policies related to child rights (Byrne & Lundy, 2019; CBA, 2020). Following the UN CRC Committee’s recommendations, the CBA (2020) notes that CRIAs should involve perspectives from various stakeholders, including children. Currently, CRIAs are not systematically used in decision-making across any provinces and territories other than New Brunswick and Saskatchewan (CBA, 2020). Given their key role in ensuring adherence to children’s rights, CRIAs should receive adequate funding to function effectively (Martinson & Raven, 2020a).
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Recommendation 8:
Begin transition planning early on for youth who are in the temporary hotels to ensure no youth is discharged back to the streets. Explore keeping hotels and designating vacation rentals to youth.
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Recommendation 18:
BC government and MCFD to ensure that children are provided with services while the family navigates the process and develop a consistent mechanism for repaying costs for services provided in the interim
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Recommendation 11:
Automatically enroll all young people transitioning out of care in an income support program that meets their basic living costs and ensures they have safe, secure and affordable housing.
2022 BC Child Poverty Report Card
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First Call Child and Youth Advocacy Society
First Call Child and Youth Advocacy Society
Year:
2022
2022
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Recommendation 4:
At all stages of any intervention, children’s views should be sought, and children’s voices should be heard. Children should be helped to develop a plan for their own care and support. Strategies and processes are required to make sure that children are appropriately informed about what is happening to their parents (when they are separated), and about the decisions that are made that can affect them.
Enhancing the Protective Environment for Children of Parents in Conflict with the Law or Incarcerated: A Framework for Action
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Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver, International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, University of the Fraser Valley – School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver, International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, University of the Fraser Valley – School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
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2018
2018
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Recommendation 4:
As this literature review has established, there are various ways in which children’s rights to participate in legal proceedings can be strengthened and preserved. To ensure sufficient attention and awareness is given to children’s participation rights, all parties to legal proceedings involving children must be appropriately educated and trained (Canadian Coalition on the Rights of Children, 2016, p.9; CBA, 2020; Martinson & Jackson, 2016; Martinson & Raven, 2020a). To increase awareness on child rights, more information about court processes should be provided to children, particularly older children, so they can provide informed views and preferences during legal proceedings (Birnbaum & Saini, 2012; Byrne & Lundy, 2019; Paetsch et al., 2018). This could also be achieved by incorporating children’s rights into school curriculums (Collins, 2019). 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 (CBA, 2020; Paetsch et al., 2018).
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- Access to justice ,
- Accessibility ,
- Accessible services and technology ,
- Ageism ,
- Courts ,
- Decolonization and Indigenous rights ,
- Discrimination and hate ,
- Education and employment ,
- Human rights system ,
- Indigenous children and youth in care ,
- International human rights ,
- Policing and the criminal justice system
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