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Submission to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention from
the National Association of Community Based Children's Services (NACBCS)
The National Association of Community Based Children's Services (NACBCS) is extremely concerned at the briefings we have received from our colleagues about the detention of children who are seeking asylum in Australia.
NACBCS represents not-for-profit children's services throughout Australia; our purpose is to advocate and assist the development of community based children's services providing good quality care, where community is defined as the environment in which people live and/or work.
This submission addresses the following key questions facing the Inquiry:
- Detention and alternatives to detention
- What is the impact of detention on the well-being of children?
- What alternatives to detention should be developed or implemented?
The detention of children seeking asylum in Australia clearly breaches our obligations as signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
- Article 37 (b) requires that children be kept in detention for the minimum time possible - we are informed that some children are being kept in detention for extended periods.
- Article 18.2 requires that parents are assisted in their role of child rearing - provision of good quality child care is a reasonable expectation of support.We understand that the children in detention have no access to skilled child care staff and so lack appropriate programming for their care and education.
- Article 3.1 asserts
that the best interests of the child are paramount - we are concerned
at reports of a lack of adequate and appropriate toys and equipment,
especially to meet the needs of infants.
Age appropriate toys and equipment are vital to the stimulation required for health development in the critical early years when the foundations are laid for brain development.
We urge the Australian Government to meet its international obligations to these highly vulnerable children.
Relevant excerpts from UN Convention on Rights of the Child
Last Updated 22 October 2002.Article 3
1. In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.
Article 18
2. For the purpose of guaranteeing and promoting the rights set forth in the present Convention, States Parties shall render appropriate assistance to parents and legal guardians in the performance of their child-rearing responsibilities and shall ensure the development of institutions, facilities and services for the care of children.
Article 37
States Parties shall ensure that:
(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time;
