New Brunswick Child and Youth Advocate Norman Bossé. (Photo Credit: Mullin's Photography)
New Brunswick’s child, youth and seniors advocate is concentrating on education rights in the 11th State of the Child Report.
Norm Bossé recommends the province “take all measures” to fully implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
“People still don’t know about the Convention on the Rights of the Child, including youth and children,” said Bossé. “We’re saying ‘we have to do better.'”
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Bossé said it is by ensuring children know their rights that we are going to make a difference in their lives.
His 97-page report looks at some of the issues facing children and youth in the province and includes more than 200 statistics.
Of note, Bossé said nearly half of youths in poverty feel socially excluded, only 28 per cent say their family stands behind them in difficult times, half of all youths have no one they look up to, and one in four youths with special needs does not feel they belong at their school.
“We feel it’s important to bring out these statistics to start showing where the areas of improvement are and the areas that need to be addressed because we haven’t made any progress,” he said.
The report noted several improvements, including a continued drop in the number of youths who are incarcerated.
Bossé said he used to see 25 to 30 youth at the New Brunswick Youth Centre in Miramichi on any given day. As of Wednesday morning, there were seven.
“That was brought about by a shift in thinking and applying the Youth Criminal Justice Act properly so that the last resort would be to criminalize or to put our kids in jail,” he said.
This was the final report for Bossé, whose seven-year term is about to end.
Follow
