Children

Cyberbullying Hurts: Respect for Rights in the Digital Age

Date:                 2012
Chair:                Hon.  Mobina S. B. Jaffer (BC)
Deputy Chair:    Hon. Patrick Brazeau (QC)
Downloads:       Click here

Summary:
With the rise of the age of technology, many young people experience cyberbullying. The Senate Committee on Human Rights explored the issue in some depth, adopting as a working definition: “Cyberbullying is the use of communication and information technology to harm another person. It can occur on any technological device and it can include countless behaviours to do such things as spread rumours, hurt or threaten others, or to sexually harass.”

Many witnesses strongly endorsed a “whole community approach” to cyberbullying, meaning that all members of the community have roles to play in discouraging bullying behaviour, including children, parents and other adults, teachers, school administrators, politicians, business leaders, social service providers and other experts.  The Committee’s six recommendations echo this theme and identify various components of a broad based national strategy to raise awareness, disseminate knowledge of best practices and entrench the basic human rights principle that everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity.  It recommended that the federal government take the lead in coordinating such a strategy.

In addition to its report, the Committee published a Guide for Youth, as well as a Guide for Parents.

Impact:
Canada.com profiled the Committee’s report, as did Global News.ca and the Canadian School Boards Association, while Unicef commended the Committee for framing the issue as a matter of human rights.  The report continues to be cited in publications such as the Globe and Mail, Managing #Bullying and iPolitics.


Children: The Silenced Citizens
Effective Implementation of Canada's International Obligations with Respect to the Rights of Children

Date:                    2007 (Final Report)
Chair:                   Hon. Raynell Andreychuk (SK)
Deputy Chair:      Hon. Joan Fraser (QC)
Downloads:         Click here

Summary:
This report is the third in a three part study of how the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is implemented in Canada.  It reiterates and reinforces earlier recommendations and goes on to focus on specific articles of the Convention that were signalled as issues of particular concern in Canada. Broadly, these include issues of participation and expression, violence against children, exploitation of children, youth criminal justice, child welfare, adoption and identity issues, migrant children, health issues, early childhood development and care, child poverty, sexual minority children, and Aboriginal children.

Impact:
Unicef extensively cited the Senate’s report in its 2007 study, What’s Rights for Some. On August 17, 2007, two non-profit organizations published Non-state Actor Torture in Canada: A Shadow Report – A Response to the Final Report, Children: The Silenced Citizens.  Many children’s rights organizations, including the Child Welfare League of Canada, use the report to bolster efforts to ensure child and youth serving organizations, and governments at all levels, fully implement the report's recommendations.  The federal government formally responded to the Senate’s report later in 2007.


Who’s in Charge Here?
Effective Implementation of Canada’s International Obligations with respect to the Rights of Children

Date:                  2005 (Interim)
Chair:                 Hon. Raynell Andreychuk (SK)
Deputy Chair:    Hon. Landon Pearson (ON)
Downloads:       Click here

Summary:
The Committee assessed how well international obligations are applied in domestic law. It examined mechanisms for strengthening Canadian capacities for providing services and advantages to all children both in Canada and beyond our borders. This Interim Report, the second in a three part study, recommends various means for the federal government, Parliament and others to achieve the stated goals.

Impact:
Save the Children Canada, speaking of the Senate’s recommendation for a Canadian Children’s Commissioner, said  “Our agency and other advocates of children’s rights support the establishment of … an ombudsman for children [who] would provide accountability that we currently lack, and to which we have already committed ourselves.” (Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, November 21, 2005).  See also Children: The Silenced Citizens above.


Promises to Keep:
Implementing Canada’s Human Rights Obligations

Date:                  2001 (Interim)
Chair:                 Hon. Raynell Andreychuk (SK)
Deputy Chair:    Hon. Sheila Finestone (QC)
Downloads:       Click here

Summary:
The Senate's Human Rights Committee undertook a comprehensive study to assess whether the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has been effectively implemented, whether Canadian children are benefiting from it, and whether the Convention has been used as a tool to address key problems facing children in this country. Promises to Keep is the first of three reports and includes an examination of Parliament's role within Canada's framework for dealing with rights of the child.

Impact:
See Children: The Silenced Citizens above.