Children’s rights protection is getting worse

The Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) has published a report which shows the Government isn’t making enough progress on the children’s rights recommendations made by the United Nations in 2002.

CRAE’s report shows that, in the last year, children only have more protection for their rights in 10 of the 78 areas the UN said needed to be improved.

Carolyne Willow, CRAE’s national co-ordinator, says:

“This report should be the final wake-up call to the Government. Ministers must take immediate action on the serious breaches before the UK is examined by the UN in 2008.”

The main places where the Government has not lived up to its promises under the Convention on the Rights of the Child are:

• Telling children, parents and workers about the Convention
• Doing everything it can to help children that live in poverty – over one-third of the UK’s children are living in poverty
• Last month the Government said it would not ban smacking. This means children don’t have the same protection from assault as adults in the UK
• Making sure all children do well in education. Only 10% of Gypsy and Roma children and 12% of children in care get five GCSEs at A* to C compared with 59% of all other children
• The UK locks up more children than almost all European countries – around 3,000 at any one time.
• The Government has allowed staff in secure training centres (private prisons for children) to restrain children (when a child is stopped by force from doing something, for example to stop them hurting themselves) in more situations.
• Since two children died in 2004 after being restrained, oxygen has been needed five times by children following restraint, and handcuffs used on children 44 times in 2006.
• Less than two in every 10 boys in prison think their complaints will be dealt with fairly.
• Most child protection issues in prisons are connected to the use of force during strip-searching. In one prison this year, two children had their clothes cut off during a strip-search.
• Asylum seeking families are given much fewer benefits than other families, and can be held in detention centres without any judge having to approve it.
• Children who come to this country without a parent and apply for asylum are not treated in the same way as other children in care. They are often put in bed and breakfast accommodation. Some can be locked up as adults because immigration officers do not believe they are children.

There have been some improvements

CRAE is pleased about the progress that the Government has made in respecting children’s views, making sure children who need it can get help with their mental health, and protecting children who have been sexually abused. But the Government is still not taking children’s human rights seriously.

Carolyne Willow adds:

“The UK signed up to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991. Ministers cannot pick and choose which children to protect or which rights to take action on. They are legally required to implement all aspects of the Convention, and morally bound to act on the UN Committee’s recommendations.”

Posted on Tuesday, November 20, 2007