Global support for improving child welfare and upholding the rights of children is strong, but in practice often fails to recognise the emerging gap between traditional child welfare practices and the evolving nature of child vulnerability. This book takes an international perspective on child welfare, examining how global and national frameworks can be adapted to address the rights and best interests of children. Synthesising the latest international research, experts redefine the concept of a 'child in need' in a world where global movement is common and children are frequently involved in the law. The book considers children as citizens, as refugees, victims of trafficking, soldiers, or members of indigenous groups and identifies the political and cultural changes that need to take place in order to deliver rights for these children. Focusing in particular on child protection systems across nations, it identifies areas of child welfare and family law which systematically fail to look after the best interests of children, often through prejudice, outdated practice, or even the failure of agencies to work together. Exploring the nexus between children's rights and the law across the globe, this book makes essential reading for policymakers, social workers, lawyers, researchers and professionals involved in protecting vulnerable children.
This book presents a model for reforming and developing Indigenous related legislation and policy, not only in Australia, but also in other jurisdictions. The model provides guidance about how to seek, listen to and respond to the voices of Indigenous children and young people. The participation of Indigenous children and young people, when carried out in a culturally and age-appropriate way and based on free, prior and informed consent, is an invaluable resource capable of empowering children and young people and informing Indigenous related legislation and policy. This project contributes to the emerging field of robust, ethically sound, participatory research with Indigenous children and young people and proposes ways in which Australian and international legislators and policymakers can implement the principle of children’s participation by involving Aboriginal children and young people in the development of law and policy pertaining to their lives. This book provides accounts from Aboriginal children and young people detailing their views on how they can be involved in law and policy development in the future. It shows the latest state of knowledge on the topic and will be of interest to researchers, academics, policymakers, legislators, and students in the fields of human rights law, children’s rights, participation rights, Indigenous peoples’ law, and family, child and social welfare law.
This collection of essays evaluates Agamben's work from a postcolonial perspective. Svirsky and Bignall assemble leading figures to explore the rich philosophical linkages and the political concerns shared by Agamben and postcolonial theory.
In this outstanding new study Don Weatherburn confronts the data, appalling as they are, with his characteristic plain speaking and good sense. No excuses are offered, or simple solutions applied. — Mark Finnane, ARC Australian Professorial Fellow, Griffith University This is a provocative and courageous book by a well-respected criminologist, offering a critique of the over-representation of Indigenous people in custody and of the programs and approaches that are attempting to ameliorate the situation…All Australians owe it to Indigenous Australians to reduce these rates of incarceration. — Dr Maggie Brady, CAEPR, ANU Finally Weatherburn reviews some of the clumsy theorizing that have been at the centre of the debates about the overrepresentation of Indigenous Australians in our criminal justice system since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Death inCustody in the early 1990s. — Rod Broadhurst, Professor of Criminology at the ANU Despite sweeping reforms by the Keating government following the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, the rate of Indigenous imprisonment has soared. What has gone wrong? In Arresting incarceration, Dr Don Weatherburn charts the events that led to Royal Commission. He also argues that past efforts to reduce the number of Aboriginal Australians in prison have failed to adequately address the underlying causes of Indigenous involvement in violent crime; namely drug and alcohol abuse, child neglect and abuse, poor school performance and unemployment.
This book examines jurisdictional differences in the role of the principle of the welfare interests of the child in common and civil law and focuses on differences within these two legal traditions. By identifying and analysing the functions of the principle both in the public and private sector of family law, the book compares and contrasts different jurisdictions and assesses their capacity to implement children’s welfare interests and rights. Covering a variety of topics including child abuse and neglect, state care, adoption and reproductive rights and family breakdown, the book demonstrates how welfare interests and rights can be balanced to create a coherent framework for family law. In addition to providing an up-to-date digest of cases and legislation, the book will be of interest to researchers in the field of child welfare and family law.
From author Carole Lindstrom and illustrator Michaela Goade comes a New York Times bestselling and Caldecott Medal winning picture book that honors Indigenous-led movements across the world. Powerfully written and gorgeously illustrated, We Are Water Protectors, issues an urgent rallying cry to safeguard the Earth’s water from harm and corruption—inviting young readers everywhere to join the fight. Water is the first medicine. It affects and connects us all . . . When a black snake threatens to destroy the Earth And poison her people’s water, one young water protector Takes a stand to defend Earth’s most sacred resource. The fight continues with Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior, the must-read companion book to We Are Water Protectors. Written by Carole Lindstrom and illustrated by Bridget George, it tells the story of real-life water protectors, Autumn Peltier and her great-aunt Josephine Mandamin, two Indigenous Rights Activists who have inspired a tidal wave of change.