From hate to hope : children's rights education in youth justice settings

![CDATA[This paper reports on the work of Mobilise, a Children’s Rights Education (CRE) programme in which children and young people (C&YP) in six youth justice settings took part. Mobilise was guided by four principles enshrined in articles 2, 3, 6 and 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 1989), including, non-discrimination, the best interest of the child, the right to life, survival, and development, and the right of the child to be heard. The study sought to investigate the impact of CRE on C&YP’s awareness of their rights, their sense of identity and wellbeing. Data collection consisted of a series of interviews conducted with CRE facilitators, alongside analyses of drawings and paintings produced by C&YP using graphic elicitation methods, accompanied by written descriptions and explanations they gave for the artwork. Reflecting the hyperincarceration of Aboriginal C&YP in Australia, more than 90% of the participants were Aboriginal and hate was a recurring theme in their accounts of their experiences of discrimination, as evidenced by the content of the artworks they produced during the CRE workshops. The analysis of data drew conceptually on desistance theory to examine the transformative potential of CRE on C&YP from hate to hope and the success of Mobilise in achieving this rested on fostering C&YP’s agency, self-advocacy, and active participation in decision-making.]]