HOW FAR does the UK meet the human rights of children? That is the question that Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights has been asking and has found a number of areas where this country comes up short. The committee has scrutinised the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the UN’s recent comments on further steps the UK should take to comply with the convention.
The convention came into force in September 1990, just after the Children Act 1989 became law in this country. The convention has much aspirational language about children’s rights, but the underlying theme is that states must do all they can within the resources available to promote health, care, education and development of children.
The major criticism levelled by the committee against the Government concerns children in the criminal justice system. Criminalising children is not the best way to ensure that they turn away from a life of crime. The age of criminal responsibility should be raised to 12. The increasing levels of imprisonment of young persons is a big concern, especially given increasing incidents of self-harm. There is an argument for taking responsibility for children in custody away from the Prison Service.
Mental health for adolescents is another underdeveloped service, the committee found. The UN expressed concern about exclusions from school of ethnic minority children, widespread bullying and poor understanding about the convention among children. The Government conceded to the UN that “the levels of child poverty in the UK are unacceptable” and promised an extra £60 million to be spent on services in 2003-04.
The committee saves its most damning comments for the reservations to the convention entered by the Government in relation to asylum-seeker children. To deny this group of children the full protection of the convention on the ground that they will exploit it is described as “far-fetched”.
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Looking to changes in the law, the committee calls for the setting up of a children’s commissioner to protect the rights of the youngest in society, and the incorporation of the UN convention into domestic law. This last point was met with a marked lack of enthusiasm from the Children’s Minister when questioned by the committee.
Children are clearly better protected in the UK than in many other countries, but child poverty in this country is still a massive problem that needs committed action from all those in government and public service.
The committee’s report is available at: www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt200203/jtselect
/jtrights/117/11702.htm
Stephen Cragg is a barrister specialising in public law at Dought Street Chambers