Quebec lawmakers again urged to adopt charter of children’s rights

The rights of children are still not fully and explicitly recognized in Quebec, the province’s children’s welfare and rights commissioner, Marie-Eve Brunet Kitchen, said in her first report released Thursday.

The creation of the commissioner’s position was the key recommendation of the Laurent Commission, which was mandated in 2019 to examine children’s rights and youth protection following the death of a seven-year-old girl in Granby.

“A lot of different decisions that are made are made without the consent or without the voice of the children,” said Alexandre Beaudoin, Deputy Commissionerfor the office of the Commissioner for Children’s Well-Being & Rights. “The system is actually really poorly adapted to the children’s and their realities.”

In her inaugural report, Brunet Kitchen highlights what she describes as the limits of the current legislative framework and recommends the adoption of a Quebec Charter of Children’s Rights.

According to the commissioner, Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, the Civil Code, the Education Act and the Youth Protection Act remain limited and insufficient.

“All the rights of children are really scattered across municipal laws and that makes them difficult to first identify and understand and not only for children, but also for the parents and as well to want to better understand the rights of children,” said Beaudoin.

Those laws recognize rights that apply broadly to all “persons” or intervene only in specific sector-based contexts.

Children, the commissioner argued, must be recognized not only as people in need of protection, but also as genuine rights holders with rights of their own.

Although Quebec declared itself bound in 1991 by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it has not incorporated the treaty’s requirements into its legislative framework, she noted.

The convention includes, among other things, the right to participation, the right to child-adapted justice, the right to a clean and sustainable environment and the right to rest and leisure.

“As long as children’s rights are not the subject of specific, comprehensive and integrated recognition, their full implementation will remain incomplete in Quebec,” Brunet Kitchen told a news conference at the National Assembly.

She argued that a charter would have positive and concrete effects on children.

“For Eli, 16, it could mean that when he wants to speak at a municipal council meeting, (…) his participation would be recognized as legitimate.

“For Noa, 10, it could mean that her schoolyard would not systematically prohibit certain games in the name of a zero-risk approach,” she said.

“The charter (…) represents an opportunity to build a Quebec that fully recognizes children as full citizens, not citizens of tomorrow, but citizens of today with rights today.”

The commissioner also announced that beginning this fall, she will meet with about 3,000 children to determine whether additional rights should be included in a future Quebec Charter of Children’s Rights.

The findings from those consultations will be tabled at the National Assembly in the hope of encouraging lawmakers to act.

Countries such as Scotland and Sweden have incorporated the Convention on the Rights of the Child into their legal systems. Brunet Kitchen, however, said she wants to go further to reflect Quebec’s specific reality and issues linked to the digital age.

Until such a charter is adopted, which would be a first in Canada, Brunet Kitchen wants Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms amended to explicitly state that the rights it guarantees also apply to children.

In 2008, Quebec amended its charter to explicitly affirm that the rights it enshrines are guaranteed to women.

“At the moment, there is a certain invisibility surrounding children,” said the commissioner’s strategic adviser, Malika Saher. “The impact for them would be immediate if the charter were opened up to explicitly include them.”

Régine Laurent offers “300 per cent” support
Brunet Kitchen acknowledged Thursday that tabling a first report at this stage is “not insignificant.” With an election approaching, she said she hopes to push political parties to “clearly state their position” on what she described as a necessary undertaking for Quebec.

“Whether it is in an election platform or elsewhere, what matters is that each party clearly states its position on this major need for children,” she said.

Especially since Quebec has been discussing a Charter of Children’s Rights for five years, recalled Régine Laurent, who attended the news conference. Laurent herself recommended such a charter in her 2021 report.

“I think that within the next year, we should all be able to say together: ‘Congratulations, we have a Charter of Children’s Rights.’ It can be done. (…) Brunet Kitchen has my support 300 per cent,” she said.

In the meantime, Laurent is calling on Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant to send “a strong signal” by quickly amending Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

The commissioner’s three recommendations

• Adopt a Charter of Children’s Rights setting out all rights recognized for children in Quebec, including at minimum the rights recognized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
• Ensure the effective participation of children in the drafting process for a Charter of Children’s Rights;
• Affirm that the rights guaranteed by Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms also apply to children.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews