Claire Achmad

Claire Achmad
Achmad in 2024
Chief Children's Commissioner
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 November 2023
Preceded by	Frances Eivers
Personal details
Born	Claire Indrawati Achmad Waitākere Ranges, New Zealand
Alma mater	Leiden University
Academic background
Thesis	Children's Rights in International Commercial Surrogacy: Exploring the Challenges from a Child Rights, Public International Law Perspective (2018)
Doctoral advisor	Mariëlle Bruning Machteld Vonk

Claire Indrawati Achmad is a New Zealand lawyer, and is the Chief Children's Commissioner for New Zealand.

Early life and education

Achmad has a Pākehā mother and a Javanese father. She grew up in the Waitakere Ranges, and was educated at Titirangi Primary School, Glen Eden Intermediate School, and Avondale College, where she was head girl in her final year. After completing a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws at the University of Auckland, Achmad earned a PhD titled Children's Rights in International Commercial Surrogacy: Exploring the Challenges from a Child Rights, Public International Law Perspective at the University of Leiden.

Career

Achmad worked in child advocacy for the Human Rights Commission, World Vision in Melbourne, UNICEF, and Barnardo's Aotearoa.

Achmad is a member of the Asia New Zealand Foundation's Leadership Network. In 2007 Achmad was named CLANZ-Bell Gully Young Corporate Lawyer of the Year. The University of Auckland included Achmad in their '40 under 40' profiles of young alumni "who continue to shine in both their professional and personal lives".

Achmad was chief executive of the collective organisation Social Service Providers Te Pai Ora o Aotearoa from 2021 to 2023. In November 2023 she was appointed to a five year term to lead Mana Mokopuna, the Children and Young People’s Commission, which had previously been the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. She replaced Judge Frances Eivers, who returned to the bench. She had been Deputy Children's Commissioner since July 2023. As Commissioner Achmad has expressed concerns about government plans to run military-style bootcamps for young offenders.

Selected works

• Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, SungYong Lee, Alex Tan, Andrea Chloe Wong, Sanjana Hattotuwa, Claire Achmad (30 May 2019). "Political spectrums in Asia". Asia Media Centre : Helping New Zealand media cover Asia. Retrieved 18 September 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Achmad, Claire (2015). "Combatting Statelessness". New Zealand International Review. 40 (1): 22–26. ISSN 0110-0262. JSTOR 48551517.
• Achmad, Claire; Vonk, Machteld (1 October 2019). "Upholding the law on international commercial surrogacy: at whose cost?". Tijdschrift voor Familie- en Jeugdrecht (10): 239–246.
• Claire Achmad (1 January 2017), Protecting the Locus of Vulnerability: Preliminary Ideas for Guidance on Protecting the Rights of the Child in International Commercial Surrogacy, pp. 513–540, doi:10.1163/9789004295056_026, Wikidata Q130316792
• Claire Achmad (13 March 2020). "Realising treaty-based protection in Aotearoa's child welfare system". Policy Quarterly. 16 (1). doi:10.26686/PQ.V16I1.6457. ISSN 2324-1098. Wikidata Q130316791.

External links

• Report, Achmad talking about the Ministry of Child Poverty Reduction 2023-2024 annual report on the child and youth wellbeing strategy. Via Waatea News