Hon Roger McClay
Commissioner for Children 31 August 2001

"The recent years of neglect, abuse and killing of children in New Zealand must surely be enough to remove any vestige of complacency," Roger McClay, Commissioner for Children told the opening of the National Association of Out of School Care and Recreation Conference in Auckland tonight.

"For many New Zealand children, the fundamental right to grow up in an atmosphere of love and understanding is a myth," he said.

"Children in a fair society have a right to protection, provision and participation," he said.

Mr McClay was also critical of the Information/Knowledge Wave Conference in Auckland.

He said that his office was not invited to it but that he wished he had been.

"But the World of Children, their rights and our responsibilities are so often not so exciting to big thinkers and big time academics," he said.

He questioned whether that conference had spent any time on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Ends

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