Not the last word: point and counterpoint Homeless Children and Children's Rights: The Starting Line in the Human Race by Chris Goddard T he new-born child arrives in the world with an awesome array of capacities and reflexes. They can suck, cough, cry, squirm, turn their heads and grip objects (Segal and Segal, 1985). As Somerville points out, however, what we have to remember is that all children are born 'prematurely', in that their character and personality are yet to be fully formed (1982 : 242). It was Wilhelm Reich, I believe, who clearly portrayed the shock of being bom. After 40 weeks or thereabouts of security, the newborn arrives in a world that is far less warm and far more threatening than the womb. The baby is picked up by the legs, slapped briskly and removed from his or her mother. Reich argued that the world was destined to remain in a mess while new residents are greeted in such a fashion. For some children, even in wealthy countries like Australia, those first few minutes set the scene for much of their future lives. The place of children in Australian society and how we treat them has been the subject of much debate in recent months. Two subjects in particular have been subject to special scrutiny: homeless children, and children's rights. The plight of homeless children received wides- pread attention when the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1989) published the results of an inquiry, Our Homeless Children. Although accurate data on such a problem is, by definition, almost impossible to obtain, the fact that the problem of homeless children existed on such a scale was a surprise to many members of the public, and received extensive media coverage. A number of major concerns were raised by the inquiry, too many to comprehensively report on here. For those who work in the child welfare field the report confirmed much that had been gleaned through practice wisdom over the years. The reported 'substantial link* (1989 : 91) between child abuse and eventual homelessness (and the widespread existence of child abuse in all its forms) will have come as no surprise to most workers. Damning evidence is presented in the report (see, for example, pp. 109- 117) that admission to the care of the state is, for many children at least, tantamount to placing them on the path to homelessness. Evidence was presented to the Inquiry that made the point dramatically: in some months, half or more of the homeless children presenting at one service were, or had been Community Service clients (1989 : 110) According to Our Homeless Children, this is nothing less than: ...a serious indictment of the willingness and capacity of those [state welfare and health] authorities to properly discharge their legal and social responsibilities. (1989 : 117) Our Homeless Children represents a significant achievement in bringing to public notice a major social problem in Australia and the need for reform to ensure that State authorities fulfil their duties. As Brian Burdekin has explained, in order to protect homeless children and create effective programs to assist them, we need to ensure that the full range of children's rights is respected (1989 : 30). This leads to another significant achieve- ment, this time from an international perspective: the unanimous agreement by the United Nations to adopt a Convention on the Rights of the Child. The concept of children's rights, it is generally believed, dates back to the Geneva Declaration' of 1924, a five- point text proposed by the then 'Save the Children Fund International Union', taken over by the League of Nations, and later forming the basis for the Declaration on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations in 1958 (HREOC/UNICEF Briefing Kit, 1989). Whereas Our Homeless Children provoked concern and demands for action, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has stimulated a surprising amount of concern of a different nature and considerable opposition. The most frequently articulated argument against the convention has focused on anxieties that parents' rights will be diminished by its adoption. Debates about homeless children and children's rights are not new. This was brought home to me recently when I was given a biography of Janusz Korczak, The King of Children (Lifton, 1988). Korczak deserves to be better known in Australia. Born Henryk Goldsmit in 1878, to a Jewish family in Warsaw, he assumed the name Janusz Korczak when he enter- ed a literary competition while he supported himself through his medical training by writing. He was to keep, and be known by this name for the rest of his life. Korczak trained as a paediatrician and devoted his life to 52 Children Australia Volume 15, No. 4, December 1990