Page 2671 - Week 12 - Thursday, 16 November 1989
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Mr Collaery: It has been repealed.
MRS GRASSBY: It has not been completely repealed. The convention on the rights of the child recognises that children, by reason of their physical and mental immaturity, need special safeguards and care. This includes appropriate legal protection. The declaration also calls upon men and women everywhere - in voluntary organisations and in governments - to strive for the observance of the rights of the child. That is something which I think we have to look at.
The convention includes rights to special protection to enable the child to develop fully and the rights to enjoy the benefits of social security, including adequate education and protection from cruelty and exploitation. These are very important things. We see such things happen around the world. I was caught in the war in Lebanon some years ago and I saw children at the age of 10 with guns, fighting a war. This is exploitation of children, and it is wrong.
Let us look at the courts in Australia. No-one can dispute the fact that most of the courts and the judges in this country are conservative and reserved. By and large, they are more concerned with preserving property rights than the civil and political rights of the person. One has only got to look at what happens to Aboriginals in courts. The world has a litany of sins of both omission and commission in the human rights area. We cannot forget that all around the world people are denied their human rights - and it is worse to think that a child is denied them.
The convention on the rights of the child is not a dangerous and extreme document. Human rights are never dangerous. It is the right of a person to have them. This convention on the rights of the child is to instruct both governments and parliaments, as well as courts, in all their dealings with children. It is not a law we have to take out. It instructs us how children should be treated.
There are few of us who would not agree that a child should be protected from practices which may foster racial, religious or any other forms of discrimination. Children should be brought up in the spirit of understanding, tolerance and friendship, among people of peace and universal brotherhood, and in full consciousness that the child's energies and talents should be developed to the service of his fellow human beings. I do not always believe that charity begins just at home; it should begin everywhere. We should always believe that we, as part of a global village, should accept the broad responsibility for the welfare of our fellow man, woman and child.
Governments must ratify this convention; otherwise we could end up with a world that has views and attitudes similar to those of the former Queensland Government. That Government
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