CHILDREN’S RIGHTS CENTRE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF CAPE BRETON

ANNUAL REPORT April 2003 - March 2004

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS 2003-2004

Dr. Katherine Covell

Dept. of Psychology Director, Children’s Rights Centre

Dr. R. Brian Howe

Dept. Political Science Director, Children’s Rights Centre

Dr. Geoffrey Carre

Dept. of Psychology Webmaster, Children's Rights Centre

Ms. Marcie Smith

Coordinator & Research Associate Children’s Rights Centre

Ms. Johnna O’Leary

Coordinator and Research Associate UCCB/MUN BEd Student Children’s Rights Centre

Dr. Robert Morgan

Sydney Historical Society

Mr. David Crane

Director of Programs Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board

Mr. David Brennick

Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board

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ACTIVITIES UN Study on Violence Against Children In response to a request from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the General Assembly in resolution 56/138 requested that the Secretary-General conduct “an in-depth study on the question of violence against children.” The study will be global in scope. Canada and the United States will work cooperatively to provide a North American Regional report on violence against children to the UN by July 2005. To this end, a steering committee has been formed with membership from a variety of government, academic and NGO representatives from each country. Dr. Katherine Covell has been named lead researcher for the group and for the North American Regional Study.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Resource Guide On behalf of the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children, the Children’s Rights Centre has co-developed a guide to existing resources on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Key target groups include practitioners in the child/youth/family serving community, youth groups, schools, colleges and universities, government agencies, policy makers and child advocates. Previous assessments of awareness of the Convention indicate that knowledge is low and there is a need for information among these groups. Increasing the awareness of existing resources will enhance the capacity of these groups to protect and promote the rights of children.

Children’s Rights Curriculum (Grade 6, 8, 12) During the summer months of 2003, our three curricula were edited and revised with new activities. With funding from Canadian Heritage, we were able to print covered and bound copies of our Children’s Rights Curriculum resources and have them translated into French, by Ms. Caroline D’Arcy of Montreal. Kromar Printers Ltd., in Manitoba, delivered 300 copies of the Grade 6 booklet in English and 250 copies in French, 300 copies of the Grade 8 booklet in English and 250 copies in French.

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We also received 500 copies of our Grade 12 Global Citizenship booklets in English through funding from CIDA. All of our curricula have been placed in pdf format on our website and are downloadable free of cost. Interest in our resources has been increasing and a large number of our curricula, in both English and French, have been sent to professionals locally, nationally, and internationally. We were also fortunate to have a visit, in November, from Suna Houghton-Mooney from the Global Education Centre at UPEI who are interested in our curricula.

Canadian Representation at the United Nations, Geneva The Children’s Rights Centre, on behalf of the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children, prepared the 2003 update to How Does Canada Measure Up. The report constitutes Canada’s five-year NGO report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, on the progress toward implementation of the Convention. Dr. Covell, represented the Canadian NGO Community and presented the highlights of the report to the UN Committee pre-sessional meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 10, 2003. Dr. Covell also represented the NGO community in September, when she acted as an official observer during Canada’s final presentation of their report in Geneva to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

National Child Day, November 20, 2003 To celebrate National Child Day, the Children’s Rights Centre decided to adopt a classroom in Arusha, Tanzania. They were inspired by the prior actions of UCCB psychology professor, Dr. Raphael Nyiti. After a week-long collection of spare-change donated by students and staff at UCCB, the Centre was successful in raising enough funds to adopt a classroom in a grade primary-7 school. The money was used to purchase desks, flooring, windows, and basic learning materials. In exchange, the school agreed to end the use of corporal punishment against students. This school now serves as a model for other schools in Tanzania.

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The Children’s Rights Centre was assisted by UCCB student volunteers – Rena Procopio, Amanda Smith, Monica Crane, Keith DeMone, Kelly Greening, Shaun Gillis, Julie MacDonald, and Wayne McKay. UCCB staff and students were given royal blue ribbons to wear to show their support for children’s rights.

Creation of New Website With the help of Webmaster Dr. Geoff Carre, we were able to create a new, user-friendly website for our Centre. This new site provides web users with links to children’s rights organizations, publications, common questions about rights, links and games for students, and our downloadable curricula. Website: http://discovery.uccb.ns.ca/children/

Ottawa Crime Prevention Research Trip In February, the Directors and Coordinator of the Centre spent a week in Ottawa on a research trip. They gathered a wealth of information on youth justice, relevant Canadian law, and the principle of crime prevention through social development. They met with criminologists Mary Ann Kirvan and Lucie Leonard at the National Crime Prevention Centre (NCP), and had a roundtable discussion and informal interview on crime prevention and youth justice. They also received a tour of the site, and spent time in the NCP Library. Visits were also arranged at the Solicitor General Library and the University of Ottawa Library. The trip was a success and we now have a variety of books, articles, videos, pamphlets, handbooks, and web tools/games on youth justice and crime prevention. All of this information will aid in future research, article/book publications, grant proposals and is a great addition to our small library.

Lost Canadians The Centre assisted a group known as the “Lost Canadians” by providing a children’s rights perspective on their citizenship dilemma. The Lost Canadians were born in Canada, but legally are not considered Canadian. A flaw in our Citizenship Act resulted in law-abiding citizens born in Canada between 1947 and 1977 being deprived of their citizenship and becoming stateless - if their father took the citizenship of another country during that time.

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From 1947-77, a child's citizenship depended on their father's citizenship. Although the law has changed, this error happened to Don Chapman, Magali Castro-Gyr, Charles Bosdet, Henry Sieradzki, Keith Menzie, George Kyle and unknown thousands of others. The government has just recently begun to look at their cause seriously.

Hampshire Study Visit From April 5-8, 2004, a group of six elementary teachers from Hampshire England visited the Children’s Rights Centre to learn more about children’s rights in education. This was the second group of teachers from England to visit our Centre. During their visit they observed activities from our grades 6, 8, and 12 Children’s Rights Curricula in classrooms across the Cape Breton-Victoria Region, met with principals, guidance counselors, resource teachers, and technology professionals at various schools, and participated in a roundtable discussion with staff from the Centre. The UK teachers were pleased with the work that was happening in Cape Breton, and continue to correspond with Cape Breton teachers and students. Hampshire is the largest school district in England with approximately 200,000 students. The Hampshire Initiative was officially launched in June 2003 at the Advisors and Inspectors Conference in Andover. We gratefully acknowledge funding from Joanne Gallivan, Dean of Research, UCCB for helping make the Hampshire visit successful. Plans are currently underway for another training visit in October 2004.

OxyContin Research In April, the Centre was awarded an internal grant to study the recent increase in prescription drug abuse in Cape Breton. At the end of the summer, we will be submitting a report to the school board with recommendations to improve drug policy and education for youth. So far, we have surveyed all of the junior and senior highs in Glace Bay, and have surveyed two schools in the SydneyRiver/Coxheath area as a comparison group. We also surveyed teachers within these schools. Focus groups were held with three groups of junior high students in Glace Bay to collect qualitative data, and concentrate on specific issues. As well, numerous professionals have been interviewed in the fields of justice, education, health care, and social services.

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We have completed an in-depth literature search and are presently working on a metaanalysis of programs and interventions that have worked elsewhere to find a best-fit for Cape Breton. The remainder of the summer will be spent entering and analyzing data from the 2545 student surveys, 92 teacher surveys, interpreting the qualitative data, and writing a report for the school board and for submission to a scholarly journal. Due to our involvement and comprehensive research into the issue, we have been invited to sit on the Education/Prevention portion of the Community Partnership on Prescription Drug Abuse.

Children’s Rights Education in Nova Scotia We are continuing to work with the Nova Scotia Department of Education and Culture to encourage the integration of children's rights education into core health and social studies curricula at the elementary and junior high, and high school levels. The grade 6 and grade 8 children’s rights curricula have been integrated into existing curricula for the province, and the new grade 12 Children’s Rights and Global Citizenship Curriculum is currently under consideration for provincial adoption.

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STUDENT EMPLOYMENT The Children's Rights Centre provides career related employment experience to many UCCB students. For the period of this report, five senior students were employed, Johnna O'Leary (Coordinator & Research Associate), Marcie Smith (Research Assistant, and Coordinator once Ms. O’Leary took education leave), Scott Murchison (Data Entry), Colleen MacNeil (Research Assistant), and Wayne McKay (Research Assistant). Students involved with the Centre typically achieve much success in later academic and professional pursuits. We are particularly pleased to report that Coordinator, Marcie Smith (2003-2004) has recently been awarded a scholarship and teaching assistantship for her MA studies in Community psychology, at Sir Wilfrid Laurier University, totaling $12,700, and was offered admission to U of T, and Carleton with awards. Marcie was recently awarded the Outstanding Young Leader Award from ECA/UCCB, Junior Achievement Canada, and JCI Cape Breton, in the research category. Researchers Marcie Smith and Wayne McKay were awarded a Student Excellence in Research Award from UCCB, Cape Breton District Health Authority, CIHR and CHSRF/NSHRF, on June 18th for their presentation on OxyContin at UCCB’s Annual Health Symposium. Other past employees of the Centre are working in the areas of law, education, social work, and other youth related fields.

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FUNDING External Grants Canadian Heritage $29,487. Funding was received to support printing and French translation of children’s rights curricula (grades 6 & 8). 2003 SSHRC $18,000. Funding was received to develop an application for a CURA on youth justice. Spring 2003 Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children $5,000. Funding received for the development of a resource guide on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. 2003

Internal Grants University College of Cape Breton Research Office: $5,300.00 Title of Research: Doom and OxyContin: The Research April, 2004 University College of Cape Breton Research Office: $1000.00 Travel Grant February 2004

Donations Chapman Foundation $3000.00 US Hampshire County Board of Education ₤500.00

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PUBLICATIONS Covell, K. & Howe, R.B. (2004). A policy of parent licensing. In P. Tittle (Ed.) Should Parents Be Licensed? Debating the Issues. (pp. 83-90). New York: Prometheus Books Howe, R.B. & Covell, K. (2004). Empowering Children: Children’s Rights Education as a Pathway to Citizenship. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. in press. Covell, K., & Howe, R.B. (2003). Global Studies and Children’s Rights: Grade 12 Teachers’ Manual/ Rights Curriculum, Sydney, N.S. Children’s Rights Centre. Covell, K. & Howe, R.B. (2003). "The United Nations Convention on The Rights of the Child and the Family: Exploring Myths and Realities", Lock Haven International Review, 16, 8-14. Howe, R.B & Covell, K. (2003). Child poverty in Canada and the rights of the child. Human Rights Quarterly 25 (4), 1067-1087

WORKSHOPS & CAPACITY BUILDING

Refereed Papers Presented at Conferences & Learned Societies Teaching children about their rights. Invited keynote address to the Advisors and Inspectors Conference, Hampshire England Education Authority, Andover, June 2003. Children’s rights education as citizenship education. Paper Presented at Fourth Annual International Citizenship Conference, Citizenship Education Research Network. Halifax, June 2003. The benefits of a rights-based approach to citizenship education. Paper Presented at Fourth Annual International Citizenship Conference, Citizenship Education Research Network. Halifax, June 2003.

Invited Papers/Talks Balancing a needs-based with a rights-based approach. Symposium on Child Protection and Participation Rights, for the Foundation for International Training. Gatineau, Quebec, June 21, 2004.

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Children’s rights and housing. Canadian Housing Renewal Association. National Forum. Gatineau, Quebec, June 22, 2004 An NGO perspective on the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child hearings. To The Convention on the Rights of the Child and Public Policy Forum. Ottawa, January 29-30, 2004 The impact of children’s rights education. To The Convention on the Rights of the Child and Public Policy Forum. Ottawa, January 29-30, 2004

Government Consultant/Conference Participant National Invited participant for Child Work and Child Participation Conference. CIDA. Gatineau, Quebec, Feb 9-10, 2004 Invited participant for workshop Identifying Common Grounds for Child Work Policy and Programming Options. CIDA. Gatineau, Quebec, Feb 11, 2004 Invited participant in expert round table discussion on child labour and other International child protection issues (National Plan of Action). Senate of Canada. Ottawa, June 27, 2003 Workshops February 27, 2004. Children’s Rights Education. Workshop given to the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School board social studies teachers, Glace Bay High, N.S. February 2004/November 2003. Psychology and Political Science students taught about restorative justice and the YCJA using role-play methods. October 2003. Children’s Rights Education. Workshop given to 23 B.Ed students at UCCB. June 2003. Monitoring Children’s Rights for NGO’s. Trained 17 community organization representatives on using the UN Convention in their area of specialty-justice, child welfare, recreation, education, child care, special needs.

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MEDIA Newspaper Articles/Interviews Tuesday, April 13, 2004. Northside Community Press. “Jubilee Elementary’s grade six students share the “rights” stuff with British educators.” Interview with Brian MacKinnon, P3 Saturday, February 28, 2004. Halifax Chronicle Herald. “ Info vital to teens’ sexual health”. Interview with Matt Hunt Gardner on Provincial Health Department’s Sex education booklet controversy, A6 Tuesday, December 9, 2003. Cape Breton Post. “UCCB students, staff help remove corporal punishment from school.” Interview with Nancy King, A4 Friday, October 10, 2003. Cape Breton Post. “Nova Scotia doing better…” Interview with Tanya Collier on UN Committee on the Rights of the Child report to Canada. A4 Wednesday, October 01, 2003. La Presse (Montreal). Inteview with Julie Perault on Canada’s report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Tuesday July 15, 2003. Cape Breton Post. Interview T.J. Colello. An Education on Children’s Rights: Educators in England impressed with program at University College of Cape Breton. C.B.C. Radio Interviews Friday January 6, 2004. “The Current”. Interview with Gary Simmons for discussion on the rights violations of the “lost Canadians.” Monday August 25, 2003. Information Morning. Interview with Hal Higgins on back to school dress codes. Other Radio Interviews Monday March 01, 2004. CJCH Halifax. Interview with Rick Howe on Provincial Health Department’s sex education booklet controversy. Monday February 02, 2004. CJCH Halifax. Interview with Rick Howe on Supreme Court Decision on S.43 of the Criminal Code Thursday October 09, 2003. . CJCH Halifax. Interview with Rick Howe on UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommendations to repeal S 43 of the Criminal Code

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Saturday September 27, 2003. Vancouver Cooperative Radio. Interview with Alison Brown on Canada’s report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and my experiences with them. Tuesday August 26, 2003. CJCH Halifax. Interview with Rick Howe, on back-to- school dress codes

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