User:Avant Destiny/SANDBOX

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2012/12/19/canada_gets_human_rights_failing_grade_from_amnesty_international.html

Canada gets human rights failing grade from Amnesty International

This year three UN expert committees rated the country’s performance on meeting rights commitments — and returned a failing grade.

Alex Neve, who heads Amnesty International Canada

has repeatedly violated

http://www.crin.org/en/library/publications/canada-persistent-violations-childrens-rights%7Cpublisher=Child's Rights International Network|title=CANADA:

Persistent violations of children's rights

Persistent Violation of Children's Rights

As the primary provider of child protective services in Canada CAS inherits an undeniable responsibilty to provide adequte solutions and services to insure

the safety and well being of the children in Canada. Canada's ability to actually fullfill these requirements has been reviewed by multiple independent

committees in the global arena, these reports unamously concur that the services provided by these Canadian providers are inadequete and often deterimental,

particually to children of minority backgrounds. In light of Canada's inability to fullfill fundamental requirements of international charter, there is also

strong consensus for policy reform to establish not only Government oversight of child services but also independent international moderation to ensure

decisions are made in the best interests of children.

Child Rights Information Network

In October 2012 the Child Rights Information Network CRIN comittee announced that Canadian child protection services and related legislation continue to

repeatedly violate the rights of children in the following areas:

• Use of, and conditions in, detention for children; regarding serious flaws in the 2003 Youth Criminal Justice Act and Bill C-10.

• Violence against children, including domestic violence; regarding a lack of established mechanisms for ensuring the safety of children.

• Sexual exploitation of children; regarding concerns that the agency responsible for child safety has not taken sufficient action to address other forms of

sexual exploitation, such as child prostitution and child sexual abuse. In particular, the Committee is gravely concerned about cases of Aboriginal girls who

were victims of child prostitution and have gone missing or were murdered and have not been fully investigated with the perpetrators going unpunished.

• Inequality in the provision of social and welfare services for vulnerable children, including those from minority backgrounds; continued prevalence of

discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, gender, socio-economic background, national origin and other grounds.

• Poverty disproportionately affecting children from minority backgrounds; the Committee is concerned that income inequality is widespread and growing and

that no national strategy has been developed to comprehensively address child poverty despite a commitment by Parliament to end child poverty by 2000.

Interestingly enough CAS agencies in Canada still view "poverty" as a leading form of parental neglect which has been used to legally justify the placement

of a childern as "at risk" of having their "security or developement endangered". Of the 5,607,345 children in Canada in 2006, over 750,000 children

nationwide could qualify for placement based soley upon their parents income status with little to no further consideration of actual quality of life.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-has-highest-child-poverty-rate-in-canada-report-1.2440909%7Cpublisher=CBC%7Ctitle=B.C. has highest child

poverty rate in Canada: report

According to CAS's sources poverty rates in GTA area are estimated to be upwards of 50% and as high as 61% in regards to single parents. With over 71,000

children at-risk of living in poverty in the Peel region alone,

http://www.peelcas.org/documents/220p_childpovertyGTA.pdf%7Cpublisher=CAS%7Ctitle=Greater Trouble in Greater Toronto: Child Poverty in the GTA

(although it should be noted that the rate determined by CAS is two or three times higher than public records and provincial averages indicate).

http://www.peelcas.org/documents/220p_childpovertyGTA.pdf%7Cpublisher=CAS%7Ctitle=Greater Trouble in Greater Toronto: Child Poverty in the GTA

http://www.ufcw.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2433:by-the-numbers-income-distribution-and-the-poverty-line&Itemid=306&lang=en%7C

publisher=Statistics Canada|title=By the Numbers: Income distribution and the poverty line

• Barriers to access to education for children from minority backgrounds and discrimination against those children within the education system; regarding a

lack of initiatives to improve educational outcomes for children in vulnerable situations, as well as the inappropriate and excessive use of disciplinary

measures applied to Aboriginal and African Canadian children in school.

• Gap between healthcare provision for children from indigenous backgrounds and other Canadians; The health status of Aboriginal people in Canada has been

described by RCAP as both a tragedy and a crisis. New AIDS cases are significantly more frequent among Aboriginals, and a leading cause of death among

Aboriginal children and youth is suicide, a severe social problem that requires long-term integrated policies at all levels. The suicide rate in Nunavut is

10 times higher than the national average.

• Discrimination against First Nations women and children in relation to personal status rules; The Committee noted concerns of long-standing issues of

discrimination against First Nations women and their children, in matters relating to Indian status, band membership, and matrimonial real property on

reserve lands have still not been resolved.

The information above summarizes and paraphrases the offical CRIN report which is discussed in lengthy detail, referenced and available online.

http://www.crin.org/en/library/publications/canada-persistent-violations-childrens-rights%7Cpublisher=Child's Rights International Network|title=CANADA:

Persistent violations of children's rights

Committee on the Rights of the Child Report

Another independent report by the the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has finished a 10-year review of how Canada treats its children and how

well governments are implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This committee also repeatedly expressed concerns that aboriginal and black

children are dramatically overrepresented in the criminal justice system, which is attributed to flaws in the Youth Criminal Justice Act. According to The

CBC the committee determined Aboriginal youth are more likely to be jailed than graduate from high school.

The report also wants Canada to:

• Adopt a national strategy to implement children's rights, alleviate poverty and prevent violence.
• Address high levels of violence against aboriginal women and girls.
• Ensure child victims of violence have access to restraining orders and other means of protection.
• Help troubled parents take better care of their children instead of sending them into foster care.
• Ensure disabled children are not forced into segregated schooling.
• Monitor the use of drugs to treat mental conditions in children, to curtail over-medication.
• Eliminate user fees in public schools.
• Increase the availability of free or affordable daycare.
• Rehabilitate Omar Khadr.
• Stop detaining child refugee claimants.
• Act to prevent obesity among children.

UNICEF Canada Charter for Children Report

United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF has released multiple reports that share the same views as the other committees and further highlights the critical failures in how Canada handles issues affecting children. The UNICEF Canada Charter for Children published in 2011 effectively outlined how CAS has failed to fullfill it's civil obligations which the Canadian government rattified under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991. UNICEF also concurs that Canadian child protection services continue to violate children's right and neglect fundamental issues regarding the safety of children in Canada.

Included in the UNICEF Canada Charter for Children is the request to appoint an independent National Children’s Commissioner who can advocate for children. “Currently, there is no one in the federal government with the primary responsibility to consider the well-being of Canada’s children,” says David Morley, UNICEF Canada President and CEO.

The priority issues in the UNICEF report are as follows:

Lack of attention to issues affecting children

"There are seven million children in Canada. But there’s no one in the federal government with the primary responsibility to think about them. There is no minister for Children, no Children’s Commissioner, no parliamentary children’s caucus or committee to ensure the impacts on children are considered in legislation, policy and services."

Failure to give children the best start

"In 1989, the House of Commons unanimously resolved to eliminate poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000. Yet close to 600,000 Canadian children spend their childhoods in poverty, with profound and lasting impacts on their health, safety and future prospects. Canada has one of the largest income gaps between have and have not children among the industrialized countries."

Failure to close the gap in life chances for Aboriginal children

"Many First Nations children on reserve suffer when federal and provincial/territorial governments can’t agree which level should provide the services to these children that are available to other Canadian children."

Lack of transparency and failure to report important finacial information

"It’s not clear what federal and provincial governments spend on children, and if it’s sufficient and equitable. All governments in Canada claim to spend significant resources on children, but the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reports that Canada invests considerably less than many other industrialized nations. The details of annual federal expenditures and transfers to provinces for children and the impact of each budget on children should be publicly reported in a “children’s budget”."

Failure to Invest a Fair Share into Child Related services

"Millions of children in developing countries lack access to health care, education and protection. They are denied a childhood, and their potential is dimmed. Eleven donor countries, including Sweden, Norway, France and Great Britain, have reached their commitment to invest 0.7 per cent of their Gross National Incomes in development assistance, or have timelines to do so. Canada, with the healthiest economy amongst G8 countries, invested only about 0.33 per cent of our GNI in 2010."

Failure to Save Lives

With only four years left to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the world has failed to sufficiently invest in the health of women and children. We have made less progress towards MDG 5 (improving maternal health) than any other goal. As a result, millions of preventable mother and child deaths occur every year. At last year’s G8 Summit,world leaders pledged increased investment for maternal, newborn, and child health."

http://www.unicef.ca/en/press-release/unicef-canada-urges-party-leaders-and-candidates-to-make-children-a-priority%7Cpublisher=UNICEF%7Ctitle=UNICEF Canada Urges Party Leaders and Candidates to Make Children a Priority