The NCYLC is particularly committed to advocating for the rights of indigenous young Australians. This is in recognition, based on wide-ranging studies, of the particular disadvantage indigenous young people face socially and in relation to the legal process.
Over the years, the Centre has run policy and lobbying campaigns to bring about positive change for indigenous young people in the areas of education, welfare, cultural rights, juvenile justice, access to justice, health and self-determination.
Since the de-funding of the National Indigenous Youth Law Centre in 1997, there has been a major gap in the provision of comprehensive human rights and legal advocacy for indigenous children and young people from a youth perspective. To address this gap, the NCYLC successfully sought funding to establish an Indigenous Rights Unit; jointly sponsored by the Sidney Myer Foundation, the Stegley Foundation and the Lance Reichstein Foundation.
The role of this unit will be to address the various education, legal and constitutional issues confronting indigenous children and young people. The Unit will approach this advocacy from various perspectives: policy, test casework, and law reform. The Unit will work in collaboration with existing ATSI agencies and networks, which are best positioned to assist in identifying appropriate cases to pursue through public interest litigation, with a view to achieving systemic change. As a priority, the Unit will address the needs of those indigenous young people whose legal needs are not being adequately addressed by existing services.
In August 1999, the Northern Territory Department of Education released its report Learning Lessons - An independent review of indigenous education in the Northern Territory (The Collins Report). The report found substantial evidence of long-term systemic failure to address low attendance by indigenous school students and lower levels of literacy and numeracy skills amongst indigenous children. These issues have come to the attention of United Nations Committees, in their consideration of Australia's obligation under the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights.
Following on from the NCYLC project in 1998/99, Keeping our Kids at School, the Centre has continued to highlight the issues involved with indigenous education. The NCYLC has undertaken a comparative analysis of the Collins Report, and the earlier report entitled If They Learn Us Right - A Study of the Factors Affecting the Attendance, Suspension and Exclusion of Aboriginal Students in Secondary Schools.