Putting the pieces in place: children, communities and social capital in Australia

Provides insights into the aspects of Australian communities that support children and those that fail them. It examines the ways in which communities can be strengthened from the standpoint of children. The report documents how excessive use of alcohol, aggressive drivers and the threat of violence make children feel unsafe in their communities. It also highlights the importance of strong, caring relationships. Executive summary   What do children in Australia value about their communities? How are communities supporting children? How are communities failing them – and why? Over the past fifteen years, governments at Commonwealth, state and local levels have been concerned with strengthening communities as part of a policy shift towards "local solutions to local problems" and to place-based initiatives. This policy shift was heavily influenced by ideas of social capital. Children are often assumed to benefit from "strong communities", yet we know very little about children‟s views on what makes a strong, supportive community. Indeed, we know very little about children‟s places and roles within Australian communities. If policies and initiatives are to be inclusive of children – as this report argues they should – it is crucial that we understand children‟s views and experiences of their communities. The research project explores in depth what children in middle childhood think about their communities, how children experience "community‟ on a daily basis, and what vision they have for their communities. This report presents the findings of participatory, rights-based research with 108 children aged between eight and twelve years across six sites in eastern Australia. The findings provide important insights into communities from a child\u27s standpoint. This research also demonstrates children‟s capacity to engage in detailed discussion and deliberation about "what works" - and "what is broken" – within their community. Additionally, it demonstrates the important insights children can provide into how to fix that which is broken

The trafficking of children through a human rights lens

In recent years, trafficking in people has re-emerged as an issue of international concern. Despite a paucity of reliable data, there is a widespread view that the majority of victims of trafficking are women and children. Children, and concerns about violations of their human rights, also feature prominently in international rhetoric and policy. But in reality, the rights of child victims of trafficking are often lost in highly politicised debates that tend to focus on organised crime, illegal migration and issues of state sovereignty. In this paper I explore (some) causes of and responses to the trafficking of children through a human rights lens. A central causal factor is demand, which is closely linked to cultures of human rights denial and assumptions that some children are less than human. I argue that while the causes of trafficking are themselves violations of children’s human rights, so too are many responses. The denial of ‘rescued’ children’s rights to protection and participation in decisions made about their lives is a further abuse of already traumatised children. If policy responses to trafficking in children are to support child victims, a greater recognition of human rights issues is necessary

Betrayal and broken ties: British child migrants to Australia, citizenship and identity

On 16 November 2009, Australia�s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued an apology to the thousands of former child migrants who had been sent to Australia from Britain during the twentieth century. The Prime Minister�s apology followed a series of apologies from state leaders, beginning in August 1998 with theWestern Australian Government�s apology to former British child migrants who had been victims of sexual, physical and emotional abuse while in institutions in that state. In 1999 the Queensland Government issued a formal apology to former child migrants, following the tabling in Parliament of the �Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions� (�Forde Report�), which documented the litany of abuses to which children had been subjected in state run institutions.1 Between the Western Australian and Queensland apologies in the late 1990s and the national apology in 2009, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania also issued formal apologies to children who had been abused while in state care. Three months after Prime Minister Rudd�s apology to former British child migrants, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologised to all those who had been sent to foreign shores under the child migration scheme, which had been supported and overseen by successive BritishGovernments. Prime Minister Rudd�s apology was directed towards both former British childmigrants and other children � Australian citizens � who had been removed from their families and placed in institutional care during the twentieth century, some of whom had been subjected to abuse and neglect. The latter group have become known as the �Forgotten Australians�. The apology referred to the �particular pain of children shipped to Australia as child migrants � robbed of your families, robbed of your home land, regarded not as innocent children but regarded instead as a source of child labour�. The apology to former British child migrants came twenty onemonths after PrimeMinister Rudd apologised on behalf of the nation to Indigenous children who had been taken forcibly from their families and placed in state care, in foster homes or with adopted families. These are the children now known as the �Stolen Generations�

Strengthening Fiji's Education System: A view from key stakeholders

Having achieved universal primary education, the Government of Fiji has stated that it will now focus attention on raising school learning achievements in equitable ways, and it has identified a number of policy priorities. This article reports on a qualitative study with children and young people in Fiji on their views and experiences of education. Two issues identified by children and young people are the focus of this article: ending corporal punishment and greater professionalism among teachers. These issues are examined against the backdrop of the government's stated policy objectives. It is concluded that policy objectives are more likely to be achieved if school children are identified as stakeholders and partners

Women in parliament in Indonesia: denied a share of power

An abridged version of this paper will appear in Yvonne Galligan and Manon Tremblay (eds), Sharing Power: Women in Parliament in Post-Industrial and Emerging Democracies, Ashgate, London, 2004Indonesia’s transition towards democracy since 1998 has been welcomed by democrats around the world as an important gain in a worldwide shift towards democracy. The nation has now held two democratic parliamentary elections – the first in 1999 and the most recent in April 2004. Each of these elections was free from violence and deemed to be free and fair by Indonesia and international observers. Yet there remains significant questions about who is participates in and is represented by Indonesia’s new democracy. Importantly, few women have gained access to political power, either within national or local parliament, despite considerable debate and the adoption of strategies to increase the number of women in politics. This paper explores the ongoing barriers to women’s participation in parliaments in Indonesia against the backdrop the legacy of history – particularly New Order ideology, prevailing stereotypes and a particular interpretation of Islam

Marriageable Age: Political Debates on Early Marriage in Twentieth-Century Indonesia

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The Extragalactic Distance Scale without Cepheids IV

The Cepheid period-luminosity relation is the primary distance indicator used in most determinations of the Hubble constant. The tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) is an alternative basis. Using the new ANU SkyMapper Telescope, we calibrate the Tully Fisher relation in the I band. We find that the TRGB and Cepheid distance scales are consistent.Comment: ApJ in press 201