Child abuse is a pervasive problem

Article 19 on the Convention on the Rights of the Child also makes provision for appropriate referral, follow-up and treatment following abuse, child sexual assault and neglect. Historically systemic failure to provide appropriate care and support for children following child maltreatment, and for adult survivors, to help them find a better sense of health and well being, has had disastrous long-term consequences not just on individuals but on the social and economic health of this nation.

Abuse within institutional settings, religious and otherwise, and that within the Indigenous community requires urgent attention. However it is high time child abuse and child sexual assault in Australia are acknowledged as pervasive social practices, reinforced by long-standing cultural beliefs and norms at the core of which is a basic lack of respect for a child's human rights.By broadening the terminology around human rights to include ‘private abuses', the majority of cases of child abuse and child sexual assault, we will improve the climate for disclosure, acceptance and understanding for both child and adult victims and empathic support and follow up.

Appropriate care and support for child and adult victims would be enormously helpful to victims who currently experience inadequate support for coping with the after-effects of abuse and a silencing taboo. Greater community open-mindedness in the community will help reduce the legacy for adult survivors and reduce the ongoing marginalisation.

ASCA is calling on the Federal government to show leadership in helping to shift community attitudes, and the attitudes of commentators, policy makers and organisations concerned with human rights to encapsulate child abuse, child sexual abuse and the human rights of surviving adults within the mainstream human rights discourse. The health of our children and of our nation depends upon it.