Supporting young children’s rights statement of intent

Your participation and your views are important to us and we value your input. The Supporting young children's rights statement of intent is intended to identify high level principles and key areas for future collective work, advocacy and action for professionals working with children and in particular for Early Childhood Australia (ECA), its members, the National Children’s Commissioner and early childhood educators across the sector.

The Australian Early Years Learning Framework states that ‘early childhood educators will reinforce in their daily practice the principles laid out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’ (DEEWR, 2009, p.5). Children’s rights, as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child re-frames a range of human rights including economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights to apply to children, including very young children (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2013).

In addition to the development of a statement of intent, a range of resources will be identified and in some instances developed, to support teachers, educators, families and children to implement the identified areas for action under the Supporting young children's rights statement of intent.

Please note that consultations are also underway with children to hear their views on the draft action areas identified. The voices of children will be evident in the finalised version of this document.

The purpose of the survey is to explore the extent of knowledge and understanding about children's rights and to inform development of resources for early childhood services. We value your feedback, please fill out the survey honestly and accurately as it will assist us to understand sector needs and possibilities for the development of future resources.

We will use the information we collect in the survey to identify the sectors understanding and will not use this information to identify your service without permission. Please note that the questions with an asterisk (*) require an answer.

To keep informed about the progress of the development of the Supporting young children's rights statement of intent and its supporting resources visit the following links: www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/our-work/submissions-statements or www.humanrights.org.au.

To assist ECA and the National Children’s Commissioner to finalise the draft document and to identify the key resources required to support its implementation please read draft Supporting young children's rights statement of intent and provide your feedback to the following key questions. Click here to read the document.

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