4391 - S - Youth Justice and Child Wellbeing

28 Youth Justice and Child Wellbeing Reform Page 2 About the Law Council of Australia The Law Council of Australia represents the legal profession at the national level, speaks on behalf of its Constituent Bodies on federal, national and international issues, and promotes the administration of justice, access to justice and general improvement of the law. [...] Youth Justice and Child Wellbeing Reform Page 3 Acknowledgements The Law Council of Australia is grateful for the input, in the preparation of this submission, of its Indigenous Legal Issues Committee, National Human Rights Committee and National Criminal Law Committee, in addition to contributions from the Law Society of the ACT, the Law Society of NSW, the Law Institute. [...] Notably, Australia has not ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure (Third Optional Protocol).48 The Third Optional Protocol provides a redress mechanism for violations of rights under the CROC and its First and Second Protocols to the Committee on the Rights of the Child.49 The Law Council has previously expressed support for Austra. [...] A target of the Closing the Gap Report is to reduce the rate of overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care by 45 per cent by 2031.95 At the time of the commencement of the report, 54.2 of every 1,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were in out-of-home care, compared to 5.1 of every 1,000 non-Indigenous children.96 In 2022, the rate of Ab. [...] While some relevant data is currently collated by the Australian Institute of Criminology,167 the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare,168 and the Productivity Commission (as part of the Closing the Gap Agreement),169 the Law Council emphasises the value of having a cross-jurisdictional approach to measuring the outcomes of different approaches based on data collated.170 It is also essential.