Student to represent the University at the United Nations

A Lismore teenager is set to represent Australia and Southern Cross University before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva.

Sarah Hort, 18, is a member of the University’s Centre for Children and Young People advisory group, ‘Young People Big Voice’, and was one of five young people selected from a nationally competitive process to join an Australian non-government organisation delegation to Geneva from October 10 to 14.

Sarah will be presenting at a special ‘youth only’ session of the Committee on the views and experiences of child rights in Australia and Australia’s compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

“Compared to other countries where there are children in slavery or facing malnutrition and infant mortality, I guess we’re doing better,” said Sarah, a Lismore High student who’s been a member of Southern Cross University’s ‘Young People Big Voice’ (YPBV) since she was 14.

“But as a developed Western nation with children in detention, together with our poor performance in relation to Indigenous children’s rights, then Australia’s assessment isn’t awesome,” she said.

“I’ll mainly focus on a child’s rights to participate in matters that are important to them. If you don’t have the right to participate then, for example, how do you exercise the right to a good education?

“Young people are the ones who are going to inherit this earth so we should have a say about how it’s going to be shaped for us and our children.”

Members of the youth delegation will work alongside leading Australian child rights advocates to assist in the development of Concluding Observations from the UN Committee that are to be considered and implemented by the Australian government over the next five years.

Professor Anne Graham heads up the University’s Centre for Children and Young People (CCYP).

“Sarah’s selection to appear before the UN Committee is a very significant achievement, not only for her personally, but also for the YPBV group she’s a member of here at Southern Cross University,” said Professor Graham.

Professor Graham said the experience will be life-changing for Sarah.

“Once you start to engage at that level on the international stage you begin to understand how processes work and how you might be able to intervene for positive change, particularly for improving outcomes for less advantaged children and young people,” she said.

Dr Robyn Fitzgerald, the facilitator of YPBV, added: “Sarah will have an opportunity to learn, especially from developing countries, which child rights issues around the world are burning ones and how those issues are responded to in various contexts.”

Sarah is accompanied and mentored by Judy Cashmore AO who is an Adjunct Professor at SCU, chair of the CCYP advisory board, and an internationally renowned and respected researcher in matters concerning the rights of children.

The University’s Centre for Children and Young People was established in 2004 based on an understanding that children and young people are entitled to the rights afforded them in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; that practice and policy regarding children and young people should be evidence based; and participation and collaboration are intrinsic to improved outcomes for children and young people.

‘Young People Big Voice’ is the young persons' consultative committee for CCYP, made up of a group of 10 local young people aged 13 to 21. Their work is entirely voluntary.

Sarah Hort’s trip to Geneva is possible thanks to the generous support of a number of sponsors, including Southern Cross University, Defence for Children International, federal Page MP Janelle Saffin, Northern Rivers Family Law Pathways Network and the Far North Coast Family Law Practitioners Association.
Photo: 18-year-old Sarah Hort is in Geneva taking part in the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.