Children’s Rights and Access to Justice – Webinar Recording

Children's right to access to justice is not just a concern for lawyers or courts. It includes thinking about child-friendly support for children to feel comfortable to report alleged rights violations; child-friendly remedies, including relevant complaints processes; and child-friendly information and education for children about their rights and what they can do when their rights are violated.

Children's right to access justice is an essential safeguard for the rights, wellbeing and safety of all children.

In this 18th webinar in our Child Rights series, we were joined by Professor Ton Liefaard (Vice-Dean at the Law School and UNICEF Chair in Children’s Rights at Leiden University) and Professor Ursula Kilkelly (School of Law, University College Cork).

Based on his expertise with the jurisprudence of the Committee and other international bodies, Professor Ton Liefaard discussed approaches to children's access to justice at the international level. He touched on the thinking about access to justice by the Committee and commented on the lack of prominence given to the issue in the Concluding Observations. Professor Ursula Kilkelly drew similarities between children's access to justice in Australia and other jurisdictions and provided an outline of the ways this access have been promoted overseas. She drew on her extensive experience with advancing children's rights in detention to comment on best practice overseas. She also discussed the best outcome for inquiries such as the current inquiry into child sexual abuse in institutional settings in Tasmania.