this is an advance in seeing the humanity in our children and thus deserving of 'human' rights, but to take this one step further, does this apply to the unborn - and the not quite dead yet?

If it doesn't apply, then this is an exercise in hypocrisy.

An interesting piece. I remain undecided about the Bill of rights approach to human rights and that probably impacts on my thinking with this.

Whilst it's clear that abusers deny a child rights does that mean that the child does not have them or just that someone is ignoring those rights? Does defining the rights alter the attitude of abusers who already show little or no regard for the child anyway?

I don't believe that the rights of a child should be the same set as those for adults, children are not capable of taking on the same responsibilities as adults nor generally of the same decision making skills. Should an carer who restrains a child from running away on a roadway be guilty of deprivation of liberty in the same way that an adult who physically restrains an adult might well be?

Is an adult who exercises control over a childs spending, what they wear or who checks what they are viewing on the web (or the content of messages) guilt of the sort of DV which I regularly see signs about in public toilets?
Equally is an adult who fails to provide for the needs of a child in their care guilty of an offence where they might not be for an adult?

I also tend to think that the causes of abuse go beyond sex and power, adults abuse children by failing to meet their responsibilities to provide for the child for a variety of reasons. Selfishness, lazyness, lack of skills etc. Adults abuse children and others through a lack of self control, power may not be the issue, rather a tendency to lash out when emotions run high (State of Origin players citing passion in an attempt to legitimise on field violence during the closing match this year).

R0bert

I am a 44 year old woman i was sexually abused as a child, and it has followed me throughout my life, eight years ago i found out my daughter was sexually abused by the same person and when i started to question on how and why Docs ignored my concerns it was swept under the carpet. I had this man charged and because of this my family set out to use my children as scapgoats,financially, mentally,and parentally alienated me. I have got no justification for what has happened and because of this i and my 11yr old son still continue to get abused.Being denied parentally rights, my judicial rights,and my rights to be free from this has had a major impact on my life. If is passed one would hope this kind of abuse seccuss to exsist.

Anyone who believes that a Bill of Rights is needed in Australia had better sign up with one of the minorities because that's who it's for - at the expense of the majority.

Sadly i note the author is female. Par 2, mentions eliminating violence towards women (1994) but not children or males. Rights of the child (1989) but not males or women.

The best Freudian slip is of course par 10, "the adults who are charged with her care".

Another Loony, Left, Lesbian, Feminazi, Paedophile bunch of psychobabble designed to waste time talking about it and blame shifting over to men, instead of protecting children from the women who abuse them daily.

Somewhere along the way meandering back and forth over this drivel she manages to forget Roger Levesque is talking about "how humans treat one another". Are women and children not human? Is that why they need different rights to other humans? Which planet do you think they are from? When will you, chazP, bobtwat, fractelle, etc, alow our children to be safe.

Ironic, Leigh, since you're not in the majority. Most Australians reject your views on pretty much everything, so you'd better get behind the rights movement before our evil, atheist, socialist government outlaws racism, sexism and political arguments based on demonstrable fallacies.