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From Policy to Practice: Are Children’s and Young People's Rights Being Realised in Australia?

  • marketing8445
  • Oct 7
  • 2 min read

Updated: Oct 8

Progress and Gaps: Australia’s Human Rights Record Must Tell the Full Story


As a frontline organisation working alongside children and young people facing systemic disadvantage, Marist180 welcomed the opportunity to contribute to Australia’s Fourth Universal Periodic Review through the national consultation process. 

While we acknowledge the Government’s efforts to highlight progress, our submission emphasised the importance of honest, balanced reporting on Australia’s obligations under international human rights law. 


As Australia is due to formally submit its national report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, it is critical that this reporting reflects both progress and persistent challenges, especially where rights are not being realised. Acknowledging these gaps is essential to building trust, ensuring accountability, and driving meaningful reform. 


The Governments Consultation Draft underrepresented the scale and persistence of structural inequality, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people with disability, and those excluded from mainstream systems. 


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What We’re Seeing on the Ground


These issues are not just service delivery challenges, they represent failures to uphold the fundamental rights of children and young people, as enshrined in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and other international human rights instruments.   

Drawing on our practice experience, we highlight the following key concerns: 


  • Children and young people experiencing intersecting forms of disadvantage continue to face systemic barriers across education, health, housing, and justice systems. These barriers are compounded by poverty, racism, and jurisdictional inconsistencies. 

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children remain significantly overrepresented in child protection and youth justice systems. Despite some positive developments, such as the appointment of a National Commissioner, we note the absence of a coordinated national program to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). 

  • Australia’s human rights protections remain fragmented and inconsistent. The absence of a National Human Rights Act and the limited incorporation of international treaties into domestic law weaken the enforceability of rights. 

  • Children’s rights are not systematically embedded in law, policy, or service delivery. While national strategies reflect positive intent, the lack of a National Children’s Act means that implementation remains uneven, and accountability mechanisms lacking. 

  • Young people’s voices are not meaningfully included in decisions that affect them. Embedding leadership and representation is essential to realising the principles of self-determination and participation. 

  • Migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers continue to face systemic exclusion, including children in immigration detention and families subject to temporary protection regimes that undermine stability and family unity. 



Read the full submission below:



 
 
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