THE CHILDREN'S COMMISSIONER IS THE CHAMPION FOR OUR CHILDREN'S RIGHTS
The Government is proposing big law changes to the Children's Commissioner. The proposed Oversight of Oranga Tamariki System and Children and Young People's Commission Bill will make significant changes such as taking away the named commissioner and their ability to report directly to the Prime Minister about issues that affect our tamariki.
If this bill goes through children in Aotearoa New Zealand will lose the champion for their rights.
Although this bill fundamentally changes the shape of the Children's Commissioner, children have not been consulted. The Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly gives children the right to voice on issues important to them and have their voices taken into account.
UPDATE! We have two more weeks to collect signatures for this important children's issue - submissions close on 9 February 2022. Add your name before it's too late.
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The Children's Commissioner is a champion for the children of Aotearoa New Zealand - speaking up to protect their rights, or about issues that affect them. This Bill fundamentally changes the shape of Children's Commissioner but children have not been consulted.
What Is The Issue?
Give Young Children Growing Up In Slum Brothels A Chance For A Better Future.
Bangladesh’s largest slum brothel - just one of many in the region - is the size of a small city and houses over 1,500 women and 1,000 children.
These women and children live largely out of sight from mainstream society - facing exclusion from education, life-saving healthcare, and their communities. Needing to provide for their children, mothers who were likely sold or trafficked into the brothel to start with, find themselves unable to leave and forced to work to pay off debts.
Children live with their mothers in rooms smaller than most one-car garages. When their mothers bring their customers home, they hide under beds while their mothers are working or they are pushed into the alleyway to play. Customers will use them to run errands, like fetching alcohol or drugs, and in some cases, they are tasked with cleaning up after customers have left. Some will be groomed to be the future of the business like their mothers and grandmothers.
How Your Signature Will Make A Huge Difference
Sign our petition to show government leaders that the Children's Commissioner matters to us in Aotearoa New Zealand
Afghanistan:
Price Hikes Push Food Out Of Reach For Millions Of Children
Millions of children in Afghanistan could be pushed into severe hunger as a result of rising food prices, drought and displacement, Save the Children warned, after the UN reported the cost of wheat, rice, sugar and cooking oil has increased by more than 50% compared with pre-COVID-19 prices.
A survey of 630 newly displaced families in Kabul, carried out by Save the Children earlier this month, already found that all of the families had run up debts in order to buy food. Many families have been forced to sell their possessions, cut back on meals or send their children out to work in order to buy food.
Save the Children warned that people's ability to buy food is likely to be further limited by the lack of operating banks and ATMS, which prevents them from accessing their savings.
Add Your Name:
Save the children's commissioner
OUR TAMARIKI
We are calling on the Government to consult with children before this Bill progresses further.
We can not continue to let these children suffer.
We call for an end to the cycle of sexual exploitation of children in Bangladesh.
Any changes being made to a Bill that so crucially impacts on the rights of children should have a thorough consultation process with tamariki, rangatahi and their families.
What Are We Asking?
Pressure from people like you is critical - and it works. When we present this submission to the Government your name will strengthen our petition. You will show how important the Children's Commissioner is here in Aotearoa New Zealand.
What Is The Impact?
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Sign Our Petition And Stand With Us Against These Changes.
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SAVE THE CHILDREN'S COMMISSIONER
Afsana’s Story:
Growing Up In Bangladesh’s Largest Brothel
10-year-old Afsana* lives in Bangladesh’s largest brothel.
She’s tired because her mother Tuli*, a sex worker, entertains clients in the next room while she and her six-year-old brother try to sleep. Drunken men and women roam the dirty alleyways all night looking for drugs and alcohol, which are readily available in the brothel’s lanes.
But just a few hundred metres down the train tracks is another world – the primary school where Afsana gets to be a child again.
Save the Children and a local partner organisation founded the school for children from the brothel in 1997. At that time, local schools wouldn’t accept the children of sex workers, meaning girls like Afsana were left uneducated and vulnerable to following their mothers into sex work.
Save the Children, along with other organisations, has called for an extension on the consultation process, but this has been denied. Save the Children New Zealand and its supporters are calling on the Government to ensure:
That the named role of a Children's Commissioner with a designated term of office is guaranteed;
That the authority of the Children's Commissioner to report directly to the Prime Minister with or without invitation is retained;
That the Bill does not progress any further until the Government undertakes a thorough consultation with children to enable them to share their voice on development of the new Children's and Young People's Commission.
Click the button below to sign our petition today!
We need to ensure that there are educational programmes and healthcare support available to help every last child find their way out - and give them an opportunity for a better future for themselves and their families.
This is why we need your signature to help us in our efforts as we work towards providing them with:
Access to education
Access to healthcare and counselling
Assistance with re-integrating them into their community
With your support and alongside our partners, you can protect children and save girls in Bangladesh from a future in sex slavery.
Take action today and pledge to give children from a chance to an education and a life free from sex slavery.
Click the button below to sign the petition today!
Athena Rayburn, Director of Advocacy and Campaigns at Save the Children Afghanistan, said:
"The spike in prices will push food out of reach for many families, particularly those who have been displaced from their homes and are living on next to nothing. Conflict, drought and COVID-19 have already pushed millions of children into hunger and misery in Afghanistan - now they could be pushed even closer to the brink of famine."
Join the movement and take a stand for children in Afghanistan by giving them a new chance at life and break the cycle of poverty.
Every day Afsana goes to school, works hard and dreams of the day she and her mother can leave the brothel. Afsana is the second-best student in grade three and hopes to be a doctor when she grows up. “I want to be a doctor so that I can help my family if anything happens to them,” she says. But that dream will never become a reality without an education and the school Afsana attends is the place where children can get one.
Join the movement and take a stand for children in slum brothels by giving them a new chance at life through education and break the cycle of poverty.
*Names have been changed to protect identities.
CHILDREN'S VOICES MATTER
Our target: 6,000
3,519 signatures added so far
A new bill will remove the role of the Children's Commissioner - New Zealand's champion for children. Add your name to save this vital role.
10,700 have signed. Let's get to 11,000!