“The child shall have the right to be cared for by his or her parents.” “[Governments] shall respect the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents to provide appropriate direction and guidance in the exercise by the child of the rights recognized in the present Convention.” From the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Articles 7.1, 5 “Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.” Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 26.3 Kids First is working towards making Human Rights complaints against the laws and polices that explicitly exclude parents in definitions of “child care”, “early learning”, and “work”. These laws appear to violate a number of prohibitions on discrimination found in federal and provincial Human Rights legislation. “Family status” is just one of a number of prohibited grounds of discrimination that such laws appear to violate. For example, federal income tax forms (Child Care Expense Deduction) and the BC Child Care Act both explicitly exclude parents in the definitions of “child care” thereby denying most parents and children of equal benefits for their child care. Even within benefits for non-parental child care, daycare centre care receives by far the most public funding; non-parental child care in the child’s home receives the least. There is no rational defence for this discrimination. Worse, this unjust discrimination causes financial and social harm to millions of children and parents. We will need legal expertise and other help. Please contact us if you are able to help and/or donate. |
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