In 2010 (the 21st anniversary year of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) AWCH partnered with Children’s Healthcare Australasia (CHA) and a number of other stakeholders, to review the Convention, particularly as it related to children and young people in healthcare. From this project the Charter on the Rights of Children and Young People in Healthcare Services in Australia was developed.
As part of this project and in partnership with children and young people, posters were developed outlining these rights.
Later, the NSW Ministry of Health again partnered with AWCH and other stakeholders to create 2 videos outlining the rights of children and young people in healthcare.
- View the video Listen Up: Rights of Every Child in Healthcare
- View the video Be in the Know: Rights of Young People in Healthcare
As a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Australia has a responsibility to ensure that the rights of children and young people are recognised and upheld. The Charter on the Rights of Children and Young People in Healthcare Services in Australia provides a framework to help empower children and young people to know about their rights and guidance for the staff caring for them. There is still much work to be done in this important area of children and young people’s rights – watch this space!
Every child and young person has the right:
- to consideration of their best interests as the primary concern of all involved in his or her care
- to express their views, and to be heard and taken seriously
- to the highest attainable standard of healthcare
- to respect for themselves as a whole person, as well as respect for their family and the family’s individual characteristics, beliefs, culture and context
- to be nurtured by their parents and family, and to have family relationships supported by the service in which the child or young person is receiving healthcare
- to information, in a form that is understandable to them
- to participate in decision-making and, as appropriate to their capabilities, to make decisions about their care
- to be kept safe from all forms of harm
- to have their privacy respected
- to participate in education, play, creative activities and recreation, even if this is difficult due to their illness or disability
- to continuity of healthcare, including well-planned care that takes them beyond the paediatric context
