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→Introduction
The rights children and youth have in family law disputes can be boiled down into two categories: the ''human rights'' children and youth have, under Canada's human rights laws and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; and, the ''legal rights'' children and youth have as people who are impacted by their parents' dispute, under the federal ''Divorce Act'' and the provincial ''Family Law Act''. Of course, it's important to remember that in British Columbia a "child" is someone who is younger than 19, the age of majority in this province under the aptly-named ''[https://canlii.ca/t/84gw Age of Majority Act]''. As a result, someone who is technically a ''child'' can also be a parent, a guardian or a spouse. The rights that youth who are parents, guardians or spouses have are the same rights that adults who are parents, guardians or spouses have.
The human and legal rights of children and youth are just as important as the human and legal rights of adults, perhaps even more importantbecause of the vulnerability resulting from their age. However, it's really important that adults remember that the human and legal rights of children exist for the benefit of children. I have too often seen parents running the "rights" of their children up the flagpole in their family law dispute, trying to use their children's rights to benefit their own position in court or before an arbitrator. This happens most frequently where parents are engaged in an extraordinary degree of conflict with each other, often but not always in cases where the alienation or estrangement of a child from a parent is a recurring theme in the legal dispute between the parents.
It is important to recognize and honour children's human and legal rights. It's also important to make sure that parents don't use them as a pawn in their legal dispute.