2. Children’s Care and Protection and Youth Justice facilities Background and key developments since 2016/17 A key development since 2016 has been the establishment of Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry for Children, in April 2017, taking over responsibility from the Child, Youth and Family department which operated within the Ministry for Social Development. The Children, Young Persons and Their Families (Oranga Tamariki) Legislation Act 2017 raised the age under which young people can be subject to care and protection and youth justice interventions from 16 to 17, in line with New Zealand’s international obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This broadens the cohort of children and young people who may be housed in youth justice residences.5 As noted in the introduction, Oranga Tamariki has committed to a greater focus on Mäori values, practices and concepts, including principles of restorative justice and conflict resolution. These are all very welcome developments, as is the decision to move away from the current model to smaller, community-based residences. I hope that these residences will manage without a dedicated ‘secure care room’ and engage instead in alternative methods to resolve conflict and deal with troubled behaviour. A key issue, noted in TOTB and repeated here, is that the seclusion of children and young people, by its very nature, runs contrary to international human rights law which completely prohibits its use with children under 18 years of age (see Appendix 2). The design, appearance and very purpose of ‘secure care’ units in the Department’s Care and Protection and Youth Justice facilities would also appear to run contrary to principles of tikanga Mäori, which Oranga Tamariki is committed to and which are enshrined in the Oranga Tamariki Act. Secure care rooms are, as one submission to this review commented: ‘a potentially mana-stripping practice.’ 5. 26 Prior to the amendments, 17-year olds were treated as adults in the criminal justice system and could be sentenced to imprisonment in the youth wing of adult prisons. Young people in state care would also generally be discharged from state care and protection orders once they turned 16, unless they were in the guardianship of the state.