OECD Workshop on Equal Access to Justice for Children in Child Welfare & Justice Systems: Event Recap & Report.
On October 8, 2024, we were delighted to lead an OECD Workshop on Equal Access to Justice for Children, alongside the 2024 OECD Roundtable on Equal Access to Justice in Ottawa, Canada.
Hosted in collaboration with the OECD, the Department of Justice, Canada and the Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures, with the Working Group on SDG16+ Justice for Children, the 2024 Roundtable built upon previous OECD Roundtable discussions, the OECD Child-Friendly Justice Framework, the Justice for Children Working Group’s Agenda for Action, and the development of a new UNCRC General Comment No. 27.
The Workshop focused on supporting governments to ensure children have equal access to justice, free from structural inequalities, discrimination and exclusion. It emphasised the practical steps to achieve equal access to child-friendly justice, including an in-depth look at mechanisms for embedding child-centred considerations into policy development processes. The session created a safe space to share challenges, promising practices, and lessons learned from the design and implementation of promising approaches. It considered the embedding of a children’s rights lens to equal access to justice for children and focused on situations where children from different cultural and marginalised communities are overrepresented in child welfare and justice systems.
Key Highlights
Professor Ann Skelton, Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and Chair of Inspiring Children’s Futures International Advisory Board, opened the Workshop by highlighting the importance of access to justice for children whose human rights are being breached, and in combatting structural inequalities and discrimination. Prof. Skelton also highlighted to attendees the relevance of the Workshop in the context of the upcoming UNCRC General Comment No.27 on access to justice (watch video here!)
Spotlight on Canada, focus on child welfare.
Earl Stevenson, In-House Legal Counsel, Peguis Child and Family Services, introduced his Indigenous perspective on children’s human rights, focusing on the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in the child and family welfare system and the responses by their communities.
Solveig Routier, Director, Engagement and Partnerships Directorate, Indigenous Services Canada, outlined a government perspective on Canada’s legislation that recognises child and family services as an integral element of Indigenous self-governance, and culturally appropriate child and family services.
International reflections and learning, focus on justice systems.
Alpha Sesay, Deputy Minister of Justice, Ministry of Justice, Sierra Leone, presented Sierra Leone’s commitment to child-centred reforms and strengthening children’s rights through Sierra Leone’s new Justice Sector Reform Strategy.
Claudine Konsbruck, Director, Relations with the Judiciary and the Legal Professions, Ministry of Justice, Luxembourg, presented an illustration of recent efforts across Luxembourg’s justice system to strengthen children’s access to justice, such as counselling, specialised training and child-specific legislation and legal representation.
Liam Coen, Principal Officer, Access to Civil Justice Policy Lead, Department of Justice, Ireland, outlined a new Strategy to reform the Irish family justice system, focused on a child-centred family justice system and the work underway to implement this Strategy.
Kimberley Conboy, Senior Counsel, Family and Children’s Law Team, Justice Canada, presented a government perspective on the concrete tools which support the integration of children’s rights into policy development, such as Canada’s voluntary Child Rights Impact Assessment Tool and online training course.
This Workshop on Equal Access to Justice for Children serves as an important milestone in our ambitious journey to ensure children are at the heart of child-friendly justice reforms, and core to the realisation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.