Australia prides itself on upholding international agreements for example, finance, environment Australia is world recognized as a well-developed country. As a part of global world, trading etc. Being an important part of the world, Australia in 1990, ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child which occurred in 1989. The UN convention is made up of 42 articles which detailed the rights of all children, 194 countries have signed up to the UNCRC which binds them by international law to ensure the rights of child are implemented. Some of the main articles like article 28 states “that children in this country have the right to an education”. Article 24 entitles “the child to a good quality medical help” which is free in Australia. And, importantly, article 22 states that “if a child comes as a refugee they should have the same rights as children who are born in this country”.

But that was not what really happened in Nauru. In 2012, there were 17,000 asylum seekers living in this tiny 34 square kilometer island. The detention centres in Nauru struggled to find portable water as the island has no rivers or groundwater which eventually caused a shortage of water supply for the asylum seekers including babies and young children. As the article 24 UNCRC pointed out, “it is a child’s right to have a clean water supply, nutritious food and a clean environment.” Also, in this detention centre children have limited time to meet their parents or friends. This contravenes the Article 15 in UNCRC which said specifically about the rights for a child to meet their parents. So no doubt, the Nauru detention centre was not treating those young asylum seekers as other children in Australia like it says in article 22 in UNCRC. And yes, that is breaking the International law. Certainly, Australia did not uphold childrens’ right in Nauru detention centre at that time. However, in 2013 88% of asylum applications were approved by the Australian government which insists that those detained on Nauru will not resettle in Australia. The good news is, in the next year, the High Court had made a decision to let 543 asylum seekers, including 70 children to resettle their new home in Australia. But still, until today, there are still 174 children in closed immigration detention facilities, 70 of them are still held in closed immigration detention facilities in Nauru. In September 2019, the UN subcommittee said they will visit a range of Australian immigration detention facilities in the “coming months” and Nauru could be one on them, ‘Children should never be held in detention facilities’ says Sir Malcolm Evens who is the chair of this subcommittee. He also specifically mentions the criminal responsibility in Australia should be raised from 10 to 14 years of age to reduce the negative impacts on them.

Compared to other LEDC countries, children in Australia have more protections and a cared for by their families or the government due to better standard of living. The Education and Care Services National Law (2010) stated that “the rights and best interests of the child are paramount”. This shows the importance of childrens’ rights has been made into national law. Australian people certainly put childrens’ rights at an important level in this country.

However, not all the Australian children appear to have the same rights. 25 July 2016, the ABC reported the abuse of youths in the Northern Territory corrections system which triggered the Royal Commission into the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre. In August 2014, a young boy, Jake Roper in Don Dale Youth Detention Centre walked out from an unlocked cell. He was kept in a dirty, tiny, disgusting cell for more than 23 hours a day and had absolutely no idea of time. Living in a such depressed environment had made him lose all his senses. The jail guards believed that situation was turning into a riot. As a result, Jake, and five other young boys who were not involved in this incident, were all teared gassed by the jail guards. However, what happened on that day came to public eyes 2 years later. People were shocked by how the young boys had been treated and we started questioning our society in protecting and improving childrens’ rights. But if we bring our eyes to the Youth Detention Centre in NSW you can easily find the differences with the Northern Territory one. In a documentary produced by Vice, this time the Youth Detention Centre we see is not a place made up of tiny and dirty cells. In there, young people were being provided with telephones and computers to communicate with their parents and friends. They also had a curtain in front of their door to protect their privacy rights. In one of scenes in the documentary, the jail guard mentioned “there are people checking their room from the window to make sure children here are not doing any harm to themselves”. Clearly, childrens’ rights were being protected far better than the Norther Territory Detention Centre. Just like what the reporter said in the documentary “genuine people with a genuine heart working with the kids.” A genuine heart, good intentions and good facilities really seems to make a huge impact to those children in detention.

In conclusion, Australia upholds rights for the majority of children in this country. Most children have a free and good quality medical help, live in a decent standard of living, but however in a variety of areas we can improve by putting more attentions into it. We have to make sure in every detention centres in Australia, that children are being treated with respect, every young asylum seekers are being treated just like other children in this country.