Roderick Best 6th World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights 17 – 30 March 2013 Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre ild heritage vs child familial identit
Feb 22, 2016
Roderick Best
6th World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights
17 – 30 March 2013Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre
Child heritage vs child familial identity
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Is the legal status of the relationship between the carer and the child relevant when waiting to preserve the child’s identity and permit a long term stable placement
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Continuum of legal relationships for a child away from parents
• Foster care• Guardianship• Parenting orders• Adoption
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Importance of identity and culture
• UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Aboriginal Placement Principles• Cultural Planning
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Director-General, DoCS vs D (2007) NSWSC 762
• Removal near time of birth• Single placement to time of judgement
when child is 4 years• Sudanese birth parents• Anglo Celtic carers• No anticipated restoration
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Director-General, DoCS Vs D
• Strong connection with ethnicity and culture of origin
• Attachment• Adoption vs parenting orders
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Adoptions
• Establishes a new family• Severs significant links with birth family – but
‘open’ adoption• Best outcomes the younger the child is adopted• Best outcomes with known adoptive parents• High levels of emotional security• Strong sense of belonging• Greater perseverance• Contact encouraged
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Tracey (2011) NSWCA 43
• Lives with family in Cambodia for first 14 months
• Travels to Australia where put in care following mothers immediate incarceration
• Placed with mother and adult daughter as carers: neither Khmer
• No anticipated restoration
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Fostering
• Limited parenting rights• Best outcomes for older children coming
into care• Difficulties with multiple placements and
poorer health and education outcomes• Insecurity in placement vs clear
connections with birth family• Strength through involving kin
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Conclusion
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Promote legal relationship that is child centred by balancing range of issues for child’s welfareincluding:
• Stability• Secure loving relationship• Cultural identity
Thank you
Cartoons courtesy The New Yorker and Peanuts Worldwide LLC
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