09-25 Alaska Native Children's Bill of Rights

Published on November 10th, 2009

By ALEX DEMARBAN

Summary

• Create a bill of rights to assure that all children in our communities under 18 receive adequate food, clothing, shelter and health care, and are safe, and have access to appropriate educational services.

• Encourage tribes to receive child abuse prevention training and information on an annual basis, provided by trained child protection programs or agencies.

• Employers should provide paid release time to employees while they volunteer with youth at school and in the community with the goal of meeting the principles of the Power of Five initiative leading to increased adult involvement with youth.

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Full Text

RESOLUTION 09-25

ALASKA NATIVE CHILDREN'S BILL OF RIGHTS

WHEREAS: We the delegates to the 2009 Annual Convention of the Alaska Federation of Natives Inc. recognize our moral, social, spiritual and financial responsibility to protect and provide for the needs of the children of our nation; and

WHEREAS: We believe that all children are created with the inherent right to be safe, to be loved and nurtured, and to have adequate health care, nutrition and shelter, and to be heard and believed; and

WHEREAS: We believe that each child has the right to be free of physical or emotional abuse, to be protected from sexual abuse and exploitation, and to be free from neglect, discrimination and the demeaning or destructive acts of others; and

WHEREAS: All our children have the right to a name and tribal identity, and the right not to be separated from his/her birth parents and to know their extended family and community, which are an important part of the child's tribal identity as well as essential to assure our survival as a people; and

WHEREAS: All our children have the right to learn about and benefit from our tribal history, culture, language, spiritual traditions and philosophy and to have positive adult role models in their lives; and

WHEREAS: We believe that parents have primary responsibility for providing their children with proper prenatal care, ongoing age-appropriate physical and emotional care, including emotional nurturing, adequate food, shelter, education, health care; and,

WHEREAS: We believe that parents have an absolute responsibility to provide their children with a safe and healthy home and child care environments, to teach their children safety skil'ls, and to provide appropriate supervision; and

WHEREAS: We believe that we too have a responsibility to assure that our tribal children have a standard of health, safety, education, and nurturing necessary to assist them in gaining healthy values and behaviors with will help them mature into healthy and productive members of our tribal community; and

WHEREAS: We believe that the treatment of children, and therefore the welfare of our tribes is the responsibility of the entire community, and that this responsibility extends to all the Native children who reside in our community, regardless of their tribal origins or their length of residence; and

WHEREAS: We recognize that domestic violence, substance abuse, lack of supervision, inadequate medical care and physical or emotional neglect may result in farreaching and traumatizing effects on a child's physical and emotional growth and development; and

WHEREAS: Maltreated, neglected, parentless and traumatized children often need special care, treatment and support in a way the promotes their healing and safety, as well as their sense of dignity, value and future well being; and

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the delegates to the 2009 Annual Convention of the Alaska Federation of Natives Inc. issue and proclaim this Children's Bill of Rights in order to assure that all of the children in our community who are under the age of eighteen years are provided with adequate food, clothing, shelter and health care; that they are protected and supervised to assure their safety and health; that they receive nurturing, appropriate cultural teaching and adequate education/schooling - all of which are their inherent and basic rights as Native children; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that by the delegates to the 2009 Annual Convention of the Alaska Federation of Natives Inc shall advocate for and promote the safety, dignity and well-being of the community's children throughout all governmental, business, social services and educational agencies and all other institutions involved in the community for any length of time; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that by the delegates to the 2009 Annual Convention of the Alaska Federation of Natives Inc shall undertake such other efforts as may be deemed necessary to assure the long-term safety and protection of our children, including, but not limited to monitoring the well-being of the children, encouraging parents to participate in services to remedy behaviors that place children at risk, and placement of children with relatives or other community members when such is necessary for the health and welfare of the child/ren; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the delegates to the 2009 Annual Convention of the Alaska. Federation of Natives Inc. issue and proclaim; in commitment to our youth and our communities, and the desire to keep children safe through mandated reporting; encourage all tribes to declare all their employees to be mandated reporters of child abuse; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the delegates to the 2009 Annual Convention of the Alaska Federation of Natives Inc., encourage tribes to receive Child abuse prevention training and information on an annual basis, provided by trained child protection programs or agencies; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the delegates to the 2009 Annual Convention of the Alaska Federation of Natives Inc urge,; in support of the youth in our community, the employers to provide paid release time to employees while they volunteer with youth at school and in the community with the goal of meeting the principles of the Power of Five Initiative leading to increased adult involvement with youth and help involve businesses and organizations in reaching out to youth and schools.

SUBMITTED BY: DEANNA HARDIN, CURYUNG TRIBAL MEMBER

COMMITTEE ACTION: DO PASS

CONVENTION ACTION: PASSED