National Children’s Commissioner urges governments to monitor child rights

Summary:

The National Children's Commissioner, Anne Hollonds, is urging governments and service providers to implement a new national toolkit to improve laws and policy decisions and monitor their impacts on children. The Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) tool, developed by the Australian Human Rights Commission and UNICEF Australia, is an 18-question checklist that assesses how children's rights and wellbeing are affected by laws, policies, and programs. The tool can be used to ensure that policies support the best interests of children and their families. Commissioner Hollonds emphasized the importance of child wellbeing being a national priority and ensuring that children's needs and voices are heard in policy decisions.