Who: IICRD associate Suzanne Williams will be co-chairing with former British Columbia Supreme Court JusticeDonna Martinson,
What: an exciting, two-day B.C.Continuing Legal Education Society (CLE) conference called Access to Justice for Children.
The Canadian legal profession is engaged in critically important discussions about access to justice. Ensuring access to justice for children must be a key component of those discussions. Children in Canada have broad legal entitlements under domestic and international law, including significant participatory rights, which have the potential to shape their everyday lives in positive ways and to protect them when they become involved in court. alternative dispute resolution (ADR), or administrative processes. Those legal entitlements apply across all areas of legal practice, as evidenced by the CBA section membership in the national Children’s Law Committee: aboriginal law; administrative law, ADR, constitutional law, and human rights; criminal justice; health law; immigration law; international law, privacy, and access; SOGIC (sexual orientation and gender identity); and wills, estates, and trusts. Lawyers practicing in all areas of "business" law have obligations under theUN Convention on the Rights of the Child to consider the impact of all business decisions on children (2013 UN Commentary on the Impact of Business on Children's Rights) with input from them. All lawyers have obligations to prepare, with the participation of children, Child Rights Impact Statements for all legislative and policy decision making. More information and registration here.
