UN Committee examines the UK Government
On Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 September in Geneva, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child examined how well the UK Government puts the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into practice.
The Government delegation was made up of 32 civil servants. Representatives from children’s charities also heard the Government give evidence, including Get ready campaigners Kat and Imogen.
The UN Committee welcomed the news that the Government is going to remove its reservations to the UNCRC. This includes removing its immigration reservation, which means that young refugees and asylum seekers should now have the same rights as all other children.
The UN Committee asked the Government almost 200 questions about children’s rights.
Some of the human rights issues the UN Committee was most concerned about were:
- the age of criminal responsibility (this is 10 in England)
- physical punishment of children
- negative media reporting about children and young people
- anti-social behaviour orders
- children being listened to in all things affecting them, especially in schools and communities
- levels of child poverty
- the privacy rights of children and young people
- health and mental health services
- local play areas for children
- the numbers of children who are locked up, and how they are treated
- the rights of certain groups of children, including young travellers and young refugees and asylum seekers.
The Committee will now decide what the UK Government needs to do to better protect children’s human rights. It will publish its recommendations, called concluding observations, on 3 October.
Posted on Thursday, September 25, 2008
