ImmigrantChildren.ca Archive

Category: Rights of the Child

  • Baker v. Canada – 10 years later

    July marks the tenth year anniversary of the Baker decision. A milestone in both immigrant and children’s rights, the Baker case addressed the rights of four Canadian-born children to have their immigrant mother remain with them on Canadian soil, despite her foreign citizenship, illegal status, and the deportation order to return to her home country.
    The Court ruled that immigration officials should pay “close attention to the interests and needs of children, since children’s rights and attention to their interests are central humanitarian and compassionate values in Canadian society“.

    Ten years after Baker v. Canada, where are we with regard to immigrant children’s rights?

    While Canada has long struggled with its immigration policy, it can be argued that Canadians have been fairly consistent – at least recently – in the value they put on children. Canada is recognized on the world stage as a champion for children’s rights. Canada was the co-host for the World Summit for Children and in 1991 was among the first countries to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention lays out the basic human rights to which all children are entitled: the right to survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harm; and to participate fully in family, culture and social life. Countries that are parties to the Convention are legally obligated to meet the standards set out in the Convention and the Convention applies to all children, everywhere. So in Canada, immigrant and refugee children have the same rights as Canadian-born children. So – does Canadian immigration policy line-up with the Convention? As part of the current immigration policy, the family reunification aspect has been seen as central and was recently cited as a key feature of our immigration policy.

    The recent federal government budget bill – Bill C-50 – introduced major changes to immigration policy, with critics charging that that the federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration will have far-reaching powers to hand-select immigrants, fearing that the family reunification aspect of Canadian immigration policy would fall to the wayside, giving preference for skilled immigrants to fill the country’s labour needs. The emphasis – critics charge – would be on based on an immigrants ability to contribute economically, and that bringing families together will no longer be seen as a priority.

    The Canadian Coalition for Immigrant Children and Youth marks the 10th anniversary of Baker v. Canada by inviting Canadians to revisit Canada’s commitment to children as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Children while considering the impact to children in the recent changes to Canadian immigration policy.

  • UNHCR on the best interests of the child

    The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCRC) have updated their 2006 Guidelines on Determining the Best Interests of the Child. From the announcement on the Child Rights Information Network (CRIN):

    The principle of the best interests of the child has been the subject of extensive consideration in academic, operational and other circles. Legal documents relating to the protection of children, including those adopted by UNHCRs Executive Committee on children of concern to the Office, systematically refer to it.

    How to apply this principle in practice, however, often remains challenging for UNHCR and its partners. Limited guidance is available on how to operationalise the best interests principle. UNHCR’s Guidelines on Determining the Best Interests of the Child are intended as one step to help fill this gap.

  • Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood annual conference

    The Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood Annual Conference will be held Nov 13-15, 2008 in Melbourne, Australia. The conference theme is Honouring the Child, Honouring Equity 8: Young Citizen(s), New Citizenship(s). Key themes to be addressed include:

    How are the possibilities for citizenship and for children being imagined and practiced in diverse contexts?
    How can we transform relationships with children to create greater reciprocity and respect?
    What are the local and global possibilities for enacting ethical citizenship processes and practices with young children?
    What local and global and global linkages can inspire new possibilities for children’s citizenship(s)?
    How do issues of diversity, difference and identity intersect with possibilities for honouring children, honouring equity?

    Call for proposals closes July 16/08.

  • In Memoriam: Zelma Henderson, Brown v. Board of Education

    Zelma Henderson, last surviving plaintiff of the historic Brown v. Board of Education case, died last week in Kansas. While Brown v. Board of Education was not a challenge to the right to education for immigrant or refugee children, it remains a pivotal event in the rights of minority children to education in the US and elsewhere.  There are many news reports: search on “zelma henderson brown v. board of education” in google, for example. Also, visit the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic website.

  • OECD Thematic review of migrant education – an update

    As posted Jan 22 on this blog, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development – the OECD – is undertaking a thematic review of migrant education.
    The question being asked is ‘What policies will promote successful education outcomes for first and second generation migrants’? 
    The objectives and outputs are based on criteria for the assessment of the successful integration into the education system, including pre-school education, which is threefold:

    1. Access: Do immigrant students/children have the same opportunities to access quality education as their native-born peers?
    2. Participation: Do immigrant students/children participate (enrol and complete) as much as their native-born peers?
    3. Learning outcomes: Do immigrant students/children perform as well as their native-born peers?

    An interesting project. Here’s the site.

  • Developing positive identities: Young children and diversity

    The Bernard van Leer Foundation has released a resource on the theory and evidence of how identity can be impacted by adversity, discrimination and diversity in early childhood, entitled Developing Positive Identities: Young Children and Diversity.
    This release is the latest in the Bernard van Leer Foundation’s Early Childhood in Focus series. Earlier editions were Attachment Relationships: Quality of Care for Young Children and Early Childhood and Primary Education: Transitions in the Lives of Young Children. 

  • Canada in violation of UN Rights of the Child

    The Canadian Council on Refugees (CCR) has denounced the Canadian government and accused it of being in violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. From the CCRs April 7th press release:

    “The Canadian Council for Refugees today denounced the blind application of an inflexible immigration rule that is keeping children separated from their parents. Regulation 117(9)(d) excludes family members, barring them from sponsorship, if they were not examined by an immigration officer when the sponsor immigrated to Canada.
    ‘Children deserve to be with their parents – all Canadians can agree on this. Yet children affected by the excluded family member rule are spending years without an immigration officer even considering their interests,’ said Elizabeth McWeeny, CCR President. ‘This is not only inhumane, it is a clear violation of Canada’s international human rights obligations, including under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.’”

    See more about the CCRs campaign on family reunification, including the April 7/08 press release at the CCR website.

  • Entre deux mers * Between two seas: Bridging children and communities, BC conference

    The Early Childhood Educators of BC, the Canadian Child Care Federation, Ryerson University and the University of Victoria School of Child and Youth Care are sponsoring a conference in Richmond, BC May 29-31/08. Entre Deux Mers * Between Two Seas: Bridging Children and Communities includes many workshops, keynotes and sessions on topics related to immigrant and refugee children and families, including:
    The Ethics of Enacting Children’s Right to Citizenship, with Kylie Smith, research fellow at the Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
    Refugee Preschool Children as Cultural Mediators, with Darcey M. Dachyshyn, University of Alberta.

    Bridging Children and Communities through Integration of Diversity Training and Teacher Education, with Valerie Rhomberg,  .

    Working with Newcomer Children and Families: The Research and the Realities, with Penny Coates, Office of Early Childhood Development, Learning, and Care, Daljit Gill-Badesha, DIVERSEcity Community Resources Society and Gany Wawa Tut, a Southern Sudanese refugee and parent in Surrey.

    Skilled Dialogue Strategies for Responding to Cultural Diversity, with Cathy Robb, Affiliated Services for Children and Youth.

    Looking Back and Looking Forward: A Pan-Canadian Perspective on Diversity Theory and Practice in Early Childhood, with Gyda Chud, Vancouver Community College, Maryann Bird, formerly of the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada, and Debra Mayer, SpeciaLink.

    Faces of Diversity: Supporting Children in Early Childhood Programs, with Becky Kelley, Bow Valley Community College.
    Visit the ECEBC website for the conference brochure with registration details and more.

  • Childhood and migration conference, June 20-22, Philadelphia

    A look at child migration through the lens of child rights. This US conference, sponsored by the Working Group on Childhood Migration features keynote speaker Jacqueline Bhabha, Harvard Law School and Executive Director of the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies.
    The conference is raising some of the following questions:

    How are children’s rights and the notion of children as citizens affected by transnationalism, or by movement of parents and children in and out of various national legal systems?What are the emotional consequences of family separation across migratory families, especially for children?
    What are children’s perspectives on migration, how are they to be elicited, how well can they be elicited and represented, and what can these perspectives tell us about socialization and processes of maturation in transnational families?
    How is migration shaping any given culture group’s notions of childhood, and how are cultural notions of childhood shaping migration?
    How do media and policy makers represent children in migration and how do discourses about immigrant children and migrant parents affect their lives and experiences?What can we do to generate better quantitative and qualitative data on the effects that migration has on children? What are the numbers of migrant children and how are they best defined as children in their own rights?

    For more information, visit the conference website.

  • Canadian Council for Refugees on proposed amendments to IRPA

    The Canadian Council on Refugees (CCR) finds fault with proposed amendments to the IRPA tabled by the federal government (as part of the Budget bill, C-50) on March 14/08. In particular, the impact on children with regard to changes in Canada’s obligations to consider humanitarian applications from outside of Canada: From today’s CCR press release:

    “These amendments take away the right to have an application for humanitarian consideration examined, even though this is the only option under the immigration law for many people, including some children seeking to be reunited with their parents,” said Elizabeth McWeeny, President of the Canadian Council for Refugees. “Again and again when we point out gaps in the immigration law, Citizenship and Immigration Canada tells us that humanitarian and compassionate applications are the recourse. What kind of a recourse will it be, if visa officers can simply discard the application without even examining it?”
    The following are two situations where the law does not provide children with a right to family reunification and humanitarian and compassionate applications are the only recourse:

    • Under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, separated refugee children in Canada cannot apply for family reunification with their parents and siblings who are outside Canada. The only way for these children to be reunited with their parents and siblings is through humanitarian and compassionate consideration.
    • The excluded family member rule (Regulation 117(9)(d)) keeps many children unfairly separated from their parents. The only way for affected families to explain why they should be able to reunite in Canada is through a humanitarian and compassionate application.

    “Canada has an obligation, under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to consider the best interests of the child in any decision taken affecting a child. This obligation is reflected in the provisions in the Act relating to humanitarian and compassionate applications (section 25). With the proposed amendment, visa officers would no longer be required to consider the best interests of the child”.