1999 Annual General Meetings
PRESIDENT’S REPORT TO THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING NOVEMBER 1999
Good things come in tens? 1999 marks the 20th year of DCI as an international organisation.
It must be lucky. This year has been the 7th year that a DCI Section has operated in Australia.
The timing of our Annual General Meeting on 10 November 1999 also has that kind of numerical symbolism. It is taking place 10 days prior to the 10th anniversary of the adoption of CROC by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 November 1999.
Maybe I am reading too much into the decimal system. But it is optimism that drives the committed people who comprise the Australian Section of DCI (DCI-A) and I have
been privileged to have been its President during 1998-1999.
We have good reason to feel proud to be associated with the waves of strategic activity that DCI-A has carried out over the past year. The support shown for the Annual
General Meeting event held in Melbourne to launch the Australian Children’s Rights Media Awards is a stand-out illustration. We both reunited with interstate fellow-travellers and met new
ones attracted by ethos and action of our organisation.
Remember that we have no paid staff or operational funding. All our activity in the past year has relied upon the voluntary expertise and efforts of our membership and
of our friends, It is sobering to take stock of what we have achieved in that context over the last year - for children and young people; for our membership; and for the general public. Here are
just 10 outcomes that would do a funded organisation proud:
1. Over 50 leading service and advocacy organisations concerned with children and adolescents decided to support the DCI-A model for an independent federal Commissioner
for Children and Young People;
2. We supported the Global March against Child Labour and in June 99, we took an advisory role in respect of Australia's involvement with the United Nations
International Labour Organisation Session on Extreme Forms of Child Labour;
3. Each quarter we have compiled and disseminated Australian Children’s Rights News and have conducted numerous community education sessions on diverse
children’s rights topics;
4. Together with the National Children’s and Youth Law Centre, we prepared a comprehensive submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee
Inquiry into Mandatory Sentencing;
5. We have been one of the central players in the broad NGO coalition that organised the September 1999 conference and Melbourne Declaration to stop the use of child
soldiers in armed conflicts;
6. Our website has been redesigned and is now up and running [note the new address and visit it: http://members.dynamite.com.au/dci-aust/] ;
7. We have provided practical advice about children’s rights to deal with specific situations;
8. DCI-A standpoints on human rights have been publicised in academic journals and books, in public meetings, and in the print, radio and television media;
9. We formulated and launched the Australian Children’s Rights Media Awards to recognise and encourage excellence in media coverage of children’s rights and
CROC, as part of our extensive involvement in the network celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Convention;
10. We took a very high profile in the intense and ultimately successful campaign to prevent children and young people in trouble with the law becoming profit fodder for
private prison operators in Victoria.
All of this on top of the daily demands of simply keeping a national organisation with a central office running. It is volunteer dedication alone that has got the jobs
done. And the starring roles are played by DCI-A’s volunteer National Committee Members and DCI-A’s volunteer National Office staff.
To be honest, they actually make me quite annoyed. Each of them is stretched to the limit in their paid or unpaid other commitments yet they apologise for not being able
to do more for DCI-A! Where will it all end?
On a serious note, I fear it will end with exhaustion.
I would take this opportunity to tell you that the volunteers who make up the National Committee and the National Office are stretched to capacity. The demand for
responses to human rights issues both locally and abroad is continually increasing. At the same time though, it is vital that the DCI-A National Committee works in a proactive as well as reactive
way.
Finding the necessary time and the balance will be a critical challenge in the coming year and I hope that requests for assistance will generate better responses from our
general membership and affiliates. Better still, if you see an issue that warrants action, make contact and discuss how you can take the lead on behalf of DCI-A.
On behalf of the 1989-1999 National Committee, I thank you for your commitment to children’s rights as human rights. Expect us to make the most of it in the times
ahead.
Danny Sandor
1998-1999 President
DCI-Australia
|
