Description:
The present report outlines key measures adopted in Canada from January 1998 to December 2007, to enhance implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OP-AC). As Canada updated the Committee on the Rights of the Child during its September 2003 appearance, the primary focus of this report is from October 2003 to December 2007 (with occasional references to developments of special interest since December 2007).
In order to improve the relevance of reporting to United Nations treaty bodies, this report focuses on selected key issues where there have been significant new developments and where information has not already been provided within reports under other treaties to which Canada is a party. Where detailed information is available in other reports, these reports are referred to, but, with few exceptions, the information is not repeated in this report. This report focuses on the following key issues:
General measures of implementation and monitoring;
Social policy issues, including family support and alternative care, violence, abuse, neglect, child care, child poverty, and housing;
Use of minor corrective force and alternatives to physical discipline of children;
Youth justice and detention;
Health, education and culture;
Trafficking and exploitation of children;
Aboriginal, immigrant and refugee children; and
Involvement of children in armed conflict.
See
page 17 for report on child care and support services,
page 18 for child and family benefits and other initiatives addressing child poverty