Violated children get new path to rights thanks to Canadian champion

UNDATED, – A Canadian is paving the way to justice for mistreated children around the world with a new law enabling them to go directly to the United Nations for help.

Child rights advocate Sara Austin, from Woodbridge, Ont., is in New York City today as the global body called into force international law that she designed.

The new treaty allows children forced to work in places like mines, brothels, factories and as child soldiers to complain to the United Nations, which will then investigate and instruct national governments to act.

Austin recognized a gap in the Convention of the Rights on a Child during her graduate studies in 2006, then spent the next eight years campaigning the UN to adopt her plan.

Ten countries have ratified the treaty so far, with another 45 countries indicating they intend to follow suit, but Canada is not yet on that list.

Austin says the new protocol will compel governments to be accountable for their promises to protect children under the most widely ratified convention in UN history.