Please see submission to the UN Committee On The Rights Of The Child General Comment on Access To Justice.
1. Seven-year-old Katelynn was murdered by her two caregivers in their Parkdale, Toronto, Ontario, Canada apartment. Paramedics found her lifeless body in a pool of blood, covered in 70 wounds, each more ghastly than the last. Eight of her ribs had been broken, her teeth had cut through both her lips, and there was a gaping hole in one finger, exposing the bone.
Police found her blood in every room of the apartment.
They found a note on which she’d written, 62 times: “I am A awful girl that’s why know one wants me.”
Two separate child protection agencies in Toronto were responsible for ensuring Katelynn was safe in her home. A Judge in a child protection hearing had given custody of Katelynn to the caregivers who murdered her. Police had visited the home where Katelynn was living and murdered prior to her death. Katelynn did not attend school for several months yet the school reported no concern to child protection authorities.
No one saw Katelynn. No one heard Katelynn. She was rendered invisible.
2. Katelynn’s story is a story about access to justice. Katelynn’s life and death is a universal story across the globe mirroring the lives of far too many children.
3. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has asked for feedback on their General Comment on Children’s Rights to Access to Justice and Effective Remedies
4. The Committee must understand that when children are rendered invisible, they have lost their access to justice often at their peril
5. After Katelynn died, young people in out of home care in Ontario’s child protection system, in her honour, pushed for an Inquest that was eventually held. Through Ontario’s Child Advocate young people in care gained standing at the Inquest. At the Inquest young people introduced “Katelynn’s Principle” to the Inquest jury. Katelynn’s Principle would ensure that no child receiving government services, child protection, youth justice, special needs, education could have a decision made about their lives without meaningful participation in that decision. Young people argued that this Principle codified in law would have a profound effect on the access to justice for all children. The Inquest jury agreed and recommended that the government of Ontario adopt Katelynn’s Principle. Supported by organizations like Defence for Children International-Canada a groundswell rose inside Ontario and the Ontario government added Katelynn’s Principle into the Province’s Child Youth and Family Services Act.
6. The Committee on the Rights of the Child must urge Member States to enshrine Katelynn’s Principle into law. The United Nations must enshrine Katelynn’s Principle into its own work and activity at every level.
7. An Addition to enshrine Katelynn’s Principle as the guiding principle for decisions affecting children
Preamble
Katelynn Sampson was seven years old when she died from being brutally abused over many months by her legal guardians. Many factors contributed to Katelynn’s vulnerable situation and to her case not being addressed by authorities.
The jury in the coroner’s inquest into the death of Katelynn Sampson made 173 recommendations for preventing another tragic death. The first recommendation, referred to as Katelynn’s Principle, places children at the centre of decisions affecting them. The jury requested that all parties to the Coroner’s Inquest ensure that Katelynn’s Principle apply to all services, policies, legislation and decision-making affecting children.
Definition
1. “child” means a person under the age of eighteen years.
Application
2. applies with respect to any person’s power or duty to make decisions under a country’s legislation affecting children, including decisions relating to,
(a) any service funded by the state offered to a child including child protection services, the justice system; and the education system.
Katelynn’s Principle
3. The following principles, collectively known as Katelynn’s Principle, shall be applied in making a decision affecting a child:
1. The child must be at the centre of the decision.
2. The child is an individual with rights. The child must always be seen, the child’s voice must be heard, and the child must be listened to and respected.
3. The child’s heritage must be taken into consideration and respected. Attention must be paid to the broad and diverse communities the child identifies with, including communities defined by matters such as race, ethnicity, religion, language, and sexual orientation.
4. Actions must be taken to ensure that a child who is able to express those views freely and safely about matters affecting them.
5. The child’s views must be given due weight in accordance with the child’s age and maturity.
6. The child must be given the opportunity to participate before any decisions affecting the child are made, whether the participation is direct or through a support person or representative.
7. The child must be engaged through honest and respectful dialogue about how and why decisions affecting them are made.
8. Every person who provides services to children or services affecting children is a child advocate. Advocacy may be a child’s lifeline and it must occur from the point of first contact and on a continuous basis thereafter.
8. We ask that the Committee on the Rights of the Child to adopt Katelynn’s Principle
9. Katelynn’s Principle must apply to a child of any age without limitation. The onus to ensure and support meaningful participation of the child in decision making is on the duty bearer and not the rights holder.
10. We understand that it is in the implementation of Katelynn’s Principle where access to justice will be found. We are as cynical as most in the world with the efficacy of the nice sentiment and words captured in the pronouncements of bodies like the United Nations. At the same time we submit this comment with hope. We ask that the Committee on the Rights of the Child work diligently in order to have its words find a home in the lives of children on the ground otherwise these endeavours are but a product of a child rights industry that simply perpetuates itself.
