Children's Rights: Making Canada Work Better for Young People. A Discussion Paper.

Abstract

Children’s rights could be an asset for federalism, rather than using federalism as an excuse for lack of implementation or a shield to avoid accountability. This hypothesis was the focus for discussion at a special event to honour the 25th Anniversary of Canada’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The goal is improving implementation across the different jurisdictions that are part of the federal state in Canada. The panel discussion and workshop were sponsored by the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children, the Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory on the Rights of the Child (IRLRC) and the Human Rights Education and Resource Center at the University of Ottawa. A discussion paper, distributed in advance, identified features of a children’s rights-based approach that could improve governance for children and issues for further discussion.