Contested Childhoods: A History of Children's Rights in Australia (1959-2013)

This project explores why children’s rights remain one of the most disputed aspects of the modern ‘human rights revolution’. Starting with the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959), it will show how children’s rights have been conceptualised in Australia across a period of almost 60 years. It will generate a new understanding of how contests over children’s rights have shaped political, social and cultural life and the implications for public policy, providing essential context to the 2013 decision to appoint the first National Children’s Commissioner and establish a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.