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On 3 December 2007, Mr Jean Ayoub commenced as the new Secretary-General of ISS, based at our General-Secretariat in Geneva. Mr Ayoub is a great find for ISS as he has a background as a senior executive in international and humanitarian affairs and more than 25 year experience in development, disaster management, people and program management and fundraising. Most notably, Mr Ayoub has held very senior roles in the Red Cross and Red Crescent and is fluent in French, English and Arabic. ISS Australia welcomes Mr Ayoub to the ISS family and looks forward to a long and fruitful working relationship.
Maria Brett, Executive Director of ISS Australia, and Sandra De Silva, Co-ordinator of the ISS International Parental Child Abduction Service attended the first meeting of Australian Central Authorities about the 1996 Hague Convention on International Child Protection. The purpose of the 2-day conference was to consider how the Central Authorities, at both the federal and the state and territorial levels, would implement the Convention in anticipation of Australia receiving its first request under the Convention.
ISS Australia was given the opportunity to give a short presentation on the potential support role that it would likely have under the Convention. We also met with representatives from the New Zealand Central Authority, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, which gave us the opportunity to discuss our partnerships and roles with these key stakeholders in our ISS work.
Following on from the ISS Asia-Pacific regional training seminar, Children in Cross-Border Family Conflicts, which ISS Australia hosted in Sydney in June this year, ISS Germany is to host the second specialist training event in our global series on international family conflict.
The 3-day specialist conference takes place in Berlin from 5-7 December, and ISS representatives from Northern and Eastern Europe will attend with the aim of improving the exchange of child-centred interventions between the two European regions around international family conflict. The conference focuses on the working approaches and possibilities of intervention of International Social Service within the context of the 1980 and 1996 Hague Conventions and the European Brussels IIa Regulation.
ISS Switzerland is playing a key support and training role in the seminar, and ISS Australia has contributed all of its training materials and learning from the first seminar. A third regional training seminar will take place in Western Europe in 2008, organised by ISS Switzerland with ISS Australia forming part of the training team.
Vanessa Matthews has resigned from the Council of Management of ISS Australia and we wish to say thank you and farewell. Vanessa joined the Council in September 2004 and has done much for ISS, particularly through her contribution to the setting up of the International Parental Child Abduction Service and the benefits that that have flowed from her personal contacts in the legal field. Vanessa has made a substantial contribution to ISS by helping to connect us with the 'cream' of family law and child welfare experts in Victoria. Vanessa’s wisdom and experience as a social worker with a legal qualification as well is quite unique - this is a combination that epitomizes the work of ISS. There aren’t many people around with Vanessa’s unique set of skills and qualifications and she will therefore be greatly missed on our Council of Management.
The Council of Management is seeking expressions of interest from suitably qualified and skilled individuals who may be interested in joining the Council of ISS Australia.
In 2005, Australia ratified the UN Trafficking Protocol resulting in the introduction of new government policies and anti-trafficking initiatives. The focus of this response was on the criminal justice system and the need to prosecute people who traffic. The downside of this “law and order” response is that there is still insufficient focus on the human rights, protection and support of the victims of trafficking.
At a recent event, the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) publicly launched and discussed issues from the Australian chapter of its research report ‘Collateral Damage: The Impact of Anti-Trafficking Measures on Human Rights Around the World’. The report considers the experiences of eight countries: Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, India, Nigeria, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. It is the first report to focus not only on the victims of trafficking but on the impact of anti-trafficking initiatives as well.
The report highlights that many of the Government policies on trafficking lack a human rights framework and perspective. One particular area of interest is Australia’s introduction of a new visa system to enable trafficked persons, who may assist in the investigations or prosecutions of traffickers, to stay in Australia. Despite this regime, there have been few convictions because there is still a lack of evidence to prosecute traffickers. The priority of the law enforcers is to secure successful prosecutions, rather than securing the rights and interests of the trafficked people. The report emphasizes that effective prosecution equates to effective victim support while also highlighting the importance of advocacy strategies and the cooperation of domestic agencies to ensure victims of trafficking are supported and protected.
ISS in the Asia-Pacific region has a clear focus on supporting the victims of human trafficking, reflecting the seriousness of the problem in our region. In particular, ISS Hong Kong and ISS Philippines have well-developed programs aimed particularly at assisting women and children who have been trafficked, including rescue, repatriation and support services. ISS Australia could potentially have a role where people have been trafficked to Australia by providing support and assistance to the victims of human trafficking, in partnership with our ISS colleagues overseas.
by Alex Connelly, Social Work Student, ISS Australia, National Office
Last month, a training officer from the Men’s Referral Service was a guest at ISS Australia’s regular casework practice meeting. The Men’s Referral Service is a telephone counselling service ‘for men, by men’, which is closely linked to ‘No to Violence’, a Victorian organisation supporting programs to assist men who use violence against their spouses.
No to Violence’s work is distinguished by its emphasis on ‘behaviour change’ as opposed to ‘anger management’. A behaviour change approach encourages the client to face up to and own his behaviour, rather than accommodate and try to subdue it. No to Violence also insists on having contact with the partners of clients, both to ensure their safety and to track the progress of the intervention.
The Men’s Referral Service and No to Violence are now key partners of ISS Australia and further information and skills sharing sessions will be planned in the near future.
by Sally Szmerling, IPCA Social Worker, ISS Australia, National Office
Many older children across Australia participate in the work force. In most instances this work does not negatively impact on their education, wellbeing or development. This ‘light’ work can be positive in teaching young people about responsibility and independence. However, due to young people’s vulnerabilities, industrial relations regimes in Australia should be closely scrutinised to ensure children in the workforce are appropriately protected from exploitation.
Under Article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, State Parties must protect children from exploitative work. Despite this, UNICEF estimates that 218 million children, mostly in developing countries are engaged in child labour that is contrary to Article 32. These children may work in mines, as domestic servants, in agricultural industries with dangerous machinery, in manufacturing industries and more. Such work leaves children vulnerable to abuse and denies them the opportunity of proper education.
Whilst the existence of child labour may seem distant from Australia (note that a large number of child labourers are in the Asia/Pacific region), there are a number of ways to fight this abuse of children’s rights:
• Eradicating poverty and promoting access to education are central to the fight against child labour. Support the efforts of the International Labour Organisation’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour to address the problem at its structural source. See: http://www.ilo.org/ipec/programme
• When purchasing imported products, look out for fair trade certification, in particular on coffee, chocolate and handicrafts. Whilst this can not always guarantee that child labour has not been used, it promotes social (and environmental) responsibility, sustainability and transparency in the production and trade of goods.
• Commemorate annual World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June by holding an awareness raising event at work or home.
by Ramanjit Kaur Johal, Volunteer and ISS Casework In charge, ICSW, Punjab Branch, India
The ICSW Punjab State Branch, India, was set up in 1973, mainly to process cases referred by ISS. Due to the ever increasing migration from the Punjab and North Indian states around the world, ISS work undertaken by this office has expanded both in terms of activities and geographical coverage. Apart from cases related to the state of Punjab, cases are handled for the northern states of Haryana, Himachal, Uttar Pradesh, the National Capital Region of Delhi and the Union Territory of Chandigarh. We are in direct contact with about 18 ISS branches and are in regular contact with the General Secretariat on policy and administrative issues.
ICSW Punjab Branch’s ISS related activities are largely performed by volunteers and include:
(i) Preparation of social reports (home studies with regard to adoption cases);
(ii) Preparation of situation reports for courts of various countries, especially in divorce cases, where the custody of children is in question and they are already in India with the paternal or maternal family members;
(iii) Serving court notices where a court wants to summon a parent in India to present his or her claim to custody of a child;
(iv) Preparation of situation/investigative reports in cases where a person of Indian origin but of a foreign nationality proposes to return to India;
(v) Referral services; for example, a recent request from Australia involved a brother who was very concerned about the health of his sister living in a rural area in northern India. We were able to provide information regarding availability and access to medical facilities for her ailment and this information was sent to Australia via the ISS network. In another recent case, a British national of Indian origin was a patient in a medium secure mental health hospital and his wish was to return to India. The service requested was to provide information about any medium secure mental health facilities in his home state in India. Details of suitable services available were ascertained and a referral was provided.
(vi) Services in health related matters; in a recent case, assistance was requested from a hospital in the United States to interview a possible kidney donor in India for a relative living in the USA. The hospital needed an assessment of the potential donor and his relationship with the transplant candidate, especially with a view to ascertaining whether there was any pressure from the family to donate his kidney.
(vii) Tracing families of unaccompanied minors, for example, cases of minors taken to Europe by human traffickers and minors abandoned by a relative;
(viii) Tracing parentage; for example, in one such complex case, an orphaned child whose father was of Indian origin was in foster care for many years and, sadly, had been abused while in care and eventually hospitalised as a psychiatric patient. Her doctor believed that it was important to trace family members and that meeting them would give her a sense of security. Family members in Australia were traced and contact was established. ICSW Punjab Branch received a letter of thanks and appreciation.
All identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of ISS clients.
A young child adopted from Eastern Europe was having difficulty settling into his adoptive family in Australia. He was anxious and aggressive at times, and continued to describe his early childhood as abusive and violent. The child’s adoptive parents contacted ISS Australia wanting assistance with tracing the child’s birth family with the purpose of establishing contact. It was hoped that the contact would provide more context and understanding about this child’s background. A referral was sent to the ISS office overseas. Contact was made with the child’s birth family within a month. The child is now communicating with his birth family via letters. The adoptive parents report that his behaviours have settled significantly. Not only has the child been able to have contact with his birth family but has also received a lot of information about his medical history and his social / family background.
All identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of ISS clients.
The ISS newsletter is now produced every two months. We appreciate all feedback, so if you would like to contribute to the newsletter, please contact Maria Brett on 1300 657 843 or email her at maria@iss.org.au.